Modern astronomical telescopes, along with other advances in technology, have brought the deep sky - star clusters, nebulae and the galaxies - within reach of amateur astronomers. And it isn't even necessary to image many of these deep-sky objects in order to see them; they are within reach of visual observers using modern techniques and enhancement technology.
The first requirement is truly dark skies; if you are observing from a light-polluted environment you need Tony Cooke's book, Visual Astronomy in the Suburbs. Given a site with clear, dark night skies everything else follows... this book will provide the reader with everything he needs to know about what to observe, and using some of today's state-of-the-art technique and commercial equipment, how to get superb views of faint and distant astronomical objects.