Hey Glen,
There's a few things that will help out when looking for deep sky objects if you are relatively new to astro.
* Most deep sky objects (DSOs) are faint. For this reason we need to give our eyes a couple of minutes to dark adapt, and to keep ambient light to as low as possible. This means that the porch light needs to be off!
* If you need a light, use a torch that's red in colour. Red causes the least amount of disruption to our dark adapted eyes. "Redifying" a torch is easy to do: wrap three or four layers of red cellophane over your torch will do the job. It will also tone down the brightness.
* An optical finder will show a huge number of DSO's. From a dark site, using a 30mm finder, I've been able to spot the galaxies M104, Centaurus A and M83. From my home in Sydney I've seen these three in a 50mm finder (up until 18months ago - light pollution has killed that off), and from a dark site, even Port Macquarie, you should have no trouble. They will be faint though.
* Learn the skill of averted vision. Our human eyes are such that our central focus isn't too crash hot when it comes to low light levels. You'll find that you'll actually see a whole lot more if you look just to one side of the object in question - this area immediately surrounding our central focus is more light sensitive, and still has enough definition in it to make out detail. Our far peripheral vision can make out faint light, but the detail isn't anywhere as good.
* MOVEMENT is your best friend! I'll explain it this way: ever notice that when you walk into a butcher the smell of the meat is quite strong, but after a few moments you don't notice the smell anymore? This is because the smell receptors in our noses have become exhausted through saturation. Our eyes are the same. They are made to pick up the smallest changes in light. You'll notice this when you are looking into the eyepiece, swinging the scope around trying to spot a faint object, and in one instance
"flash"!, you saw something and then it's gone! You didn't see things. Your eyes picked up the tiny change in light as the object whizzed through the field of view. You no longer see it as you are trying to use your central focus, which as I mentioned, really won't show up such a small change in light anywhere as well as your averted vision will. So when you go back to look for that thing that you "thought" you saw, DON'T look for it directly, but use averted vision.
This same movement in the eyepiece will also restimulate your eyes if you've been looking at the same thing for some time. Your eyes will become quickly saturated with the low light situation you are looking at, so a little tap on the scope will introduce a little vibration and shake up the image in the EP, and PRESTO! you can see really faint details again!!!
* Take your time. The problem about visual astronomy is that we need to make use of our sight's weakest point - low level illumination. Seeing in low levels of light takes a little time and practice.
Here's an exercise for you, and anyone also new to astro. As long as the scope you are using is 70mm or larger, this exercise is a goer:
Chase down the giant globular cluster Omega Centauri. A first glance it will appear as a big fuzzy round blob. Park your vision just to one edge and hold it steady at the one spot and count to five. As if by magic, a mass of millions of tiny pin points of light will appear all at once! In the excitement you will shift your eyes, and they will all disappear! This is another little trick, where we are allowing our eyes to build up the saturation of faint light so that we can actually see an amazing amount of detail. Have a go. This is how I approach my observation of all globular clusters, large or small, and it still gives me a thrill this exercise after more than 30 years of looking in to eyepieces,
If you'd like to read up on other tips and techniques for improving your observing skills, have a look at this sticky in the Observational and Visual Astronomy forum:
How to hone visual sensitivity and accuracy
Mental.