Binocular and telescope ready?

It sometimes comes as a surprise to new astronomers that the moon is best observed when it is not full. A full moon makes for some fun pics, as in the pic, here, but that full moon is simply too bright - all that light scatters about and drowns out most of the detail that makes observing the moon with a binocular or telescope so much fun. A moon that is only partially lit tends to to highlight detail with long shadows and that make for some very dramatic scenes in binoculars or telescopes, even right down to the point where the moon is a small and thin crescent.

Last quarter also means it is time to get serious about deep-sky astronomy with your astronomy binocular or telescope. Yes, that quarter moon still washes out those very faint deep-sky objects, but a closer check of moonrise and moonset reveals that there are some excellent deep-sky "windows" during the quarter moon phase when the moon is not in the sky. In effect, that gives us about three weeks of observing time with our binocular or telescope, not just one when the moon is in its new phase. If you are limiting yourself to that one week when the moon is not in the sky, you are missing a lot of astronomy.