Could someone provide me a list of the messier objects with the surface brightness and magnitude so I know which objects I'll be able to see?

cjw,

Take a look at this site:

http://seds.org/messier/data2.html

JJ 

It would also be a good idea to pick up a decent star chart. 

The Saguaro Astronomy Club database has surface brightness data on a number of deep-sky objects and can be downloaded at http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/downloads.htm

Here's a list of the Messier galaxies, their integrated visual magnitudes, and their surface brightnesses:

M31 3.4 13.6
M32 8.1 12.7
M33 5.7 14.2
M51 8.4 12.6
M58 9.7 13.0
M59 9.6 12.5
M60 8.8 12.8
M61 9.7 13.4
M63 8.6 13.6
M64 8.5 12.4
M65 9.3 12.4
M66 8.9 12.5
M74 9.4 14.4
M77 8.9 13.2
M81 6.9 13.0
M82 8.4 12.8
M83 7.6 13.2
M84 9.1 12.3
M85 9.1 13.0
M86 8.9 13.9
M87 8.6 12.7
M88 9.6 12.6
M89 9.8 12.3
M90 9.5 13.6
M91 10.2 13.3
M94 8.2 13.5
M95 9.7 13.5
M96 9.2 12.9
M98 10.1 13.2
M99 9.9 13.0
M100 9.3 13.0
M101 7.9 14.8
M104 8.0 11.6
M105 9.3 12.1
M106 8.4 13.8
M108 10.0 13.0
M109 9.8 13.5

I also have data on a number of showcase NGC galaxies:

NGC 253  7.6  13.2
NGC 253  7.6  13.2
NGC 891  9.9  13.7
NGC 1097 9.2  13.6
NGC 2841 9.2  12.4
NGC 2903 9.0  13.4
NGC 2997 9.3  13.6
NGC 3115 8.9  12.1
NGC 3628 9.5  13.7
NGC 4449 9.6  12.8
NGC 4565 9.6  12.9
NGC 5005 10.8 12.7
NGC 5746 10.3 12.3
NGC 5907 10.3 13.4
NGC 6946 8.8  14.2
NGC 7331 9.5  13.3
NGC 7479 10.8 13.4

Dave Mitsky

Maybe 3 more.

M49 8.4 12.9
M102 9.9 12.2
M110 8.1 14.0

Saber Does The Stars at
www.astronomyblogs.com/member/saberscorpx/

Thank you Dave, for the surface brightness. I've been wondering about it ever since I read another thread you were on. thanks again

You're welcome.  The data I had on M49 (8.4 12.7) and M110 (8.1 13.9) got clipped off in the process of transfering it here.  M102 was not included in the original source.  My thanks go to Stephen Saber for posting the figures, although they are from a different source than mine and differ slightly.

Surface brightness data is available in The Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000.0  and in The Night Sky Observer's Guide.

Here are two articles on the subject:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze55p46/id18.html

http://www.astrobuysell.com/paul/sb.htm 

There's a surface brightness calculator at http://www.geekjoy.com/calcs/surfbright.html

Dave Mitsky