Sometimes the binoculars give a better view than the telescope.  That is true with the asterism known as the Coathanger.  In the telescope image, some stars are cut off by the narrow field of view, but the whole asterism appears in binoculars.  Here is an older observation of Collinder 399, the Coathanger, in binoculars.

I removed the ISP-provided images decorating the pages and replaced them with my own.  On the main page, you will see my telescope (edited from a picture taken from a star party with GIMP) replacing the crescent moon.  On other pages, you will see a selection of my sketch of Pleiades replacing the gas giants.  On the Favorite Links page, the generic galaxy picture was replaced with my Big Dipper creation from GIMP, using the photo I have on the astrophotography page (under Observations).  This makes the page more "my own"

The easiest way to find the Beehive cluster (M44) this year is to find Saturn, as the constellation it is in (Cancer) is very dim.  If you aim your binoculars at Saturn and move a little left, you will see a collection of stars much like a swarm of bees.  The field of view shown includes Saturn and Aselus Borealis and Aselus Australis (literally, northern and southern donkey), which represent two donkeys feasting from a manger (Praesape), another name for the cluster.  The central pentagon (house-shaped) is the manger, surrounded by straw on the floor.

The sky is so hazy I cannot even see bright M13 in binoculars.  So, here is an older observation.  M81 is Bode's Galaxy, a spiral.  M82 is the Cigar Galaxy, an irregular that is dimmer than M81.  The two are not just in the same place in the sky, they are close together in space, having recently passed very close to each other and interacted.

Tonight is not a good observation night.  Still, I can draw practice sketches from the Starry Night software.  Here is Pleiades, one of the prettiest open clusters in the sky.  The practice sketches now go on their own page too.

 

For this one, I used GIMP to enhance the scanned sketch image a bit.  I used "smudge" to fuzz out some stray colored pencil marks in the nebulosity, and "blur" to make it even more nebulous.  I only used slight blurring or else the stars would blur too.  I also used the "levels" adjustment tool to make the background full black and the stars full white.

When the moon is not up and the weather is reasonable, we have star parties at one of our two viewing sites.  Last night, we went to Alpha Ridge park.  There were some clouds, but still much was viewable.  I saw Mercury for the first time in my scope and in binoculars, and I even took a picture of it.  In addition, Mars and Saturn were right next to each other in the sky, in the Beehive cluster.  I did not see many stars in the Beehive as it was low on the Western horizon just after sunset. 

 

I saw the International Space Station twice--very bright satellite.  All four Galilean moons of Jupiter were visible in the scope.  At 300x magnification, I could just see the Great Red Spot fade in and out, but Red, Jr. was nowhere to be found.

 

I failed again to find M81/M82, but will try again next time.  However, I did find M51, which was barely visible.

 

I tried for M40 but got mixed up somehow and sketched the wrong double star.

 

I did find and sketch M13 in the telescope.