Binoculars
Binoculars are the best tool for wide-field browsing and exploring the night sky. Using both eyes helps a lot, and the time needed to set up is very short. I regularly observe with binoculars and I enjoy it a lot. I have two dedicated astronomical binoculars.
Garrett Gemini 25x100 WP-IF Mark II Astronomy Binoculars. Big and heavy 100mm binoculars, large aperture allows viewing faint targets. In fact it is bigger than my C80ED refractor ... Field of view is about 2.4 degrees. This binoculars need to be used on a mount, but once mounted they are very easy to move around. It is possible to install 1.25" filters at the eyepiece side, I use it when observing large emission nebulae like North America Nebula, California Nebula and similar. The filters I use are wide-band light pollution filters.
Garrett Gemini 12x60 LW Binoculars. This is a good compromise between aperture (60mm) and size. The field of view is about 5.7 degree, best for browsing big star fields (Milky Way) and observing large objects.
The best way to use binoculars for astronomy is on some kind of mount - the steadier they are the better observing. An nice adjustable seating (a recliner) should be also used - it needs to support wide range of position between the vertical (looking close to horizon) and horizontal (looking at zenith). For the mount I chose Universal Astronomics UniMount parallelogram mount, it allows a lot of freedom of motion while keeping binoculars on the target whenever possible. The recliner is just a standard one from Dick's Sporting Goods.
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While observing I frequently use my tablet with Sky Safari and observing lists on it. I can highlight objects on the map and use it to star-hop and locate them easily. You can download my lists from this page. The large 100mmm binoculars have a red dot finder installed to help in pointing. I have also bought dew shields for 100mm binoculars and I install dew straps on both ends to keep fogging away. The finder is also heated. I use marine batter power tank, whole night of observing uses only a part of its capacity.
Garrett Optical has been acquired by Oberwerk and most of their products have been discontinued. Probably the closest products on the market now are dedicated astronomical binoculars from Celestron or Orion in the same aperture and magnification range.
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 with 100mm binoculars',event))