I recently got my hands on the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars, and man, what a difference from telescopic observations! For my first two years of visual astronomy, until now, I have exclusively used my 8 inch dob for 90% of total observing, with a good use of naked eye observing as well. With naked eye, I of course observed at 1x magnification, and with the telescope, anything ranging from 40x to above. With the 15x70 binos, I was able to fill in that sweet spot of 15x and it really makes a difference. Last night I used the binos for the first time, and after some confusion with figuring out how to adjust the IDP and focus, I finally aimed it at my first target: the moon. I was surprised by how much craters, although very small, were visible, and the view was very sharp. Then, it was time for DSO's. Considering that I had 2 years of overall knowledge of the night sky and experience with star hopping, those skills translated perfectly to the binos. Finding the location of Messier objects was a breeze, and it really felt like I was doing a mini Messier marathon. Here is a list of all the DSO I saw, as well as a brief description of the views:
Globular Clusters (No stars were resolved within the clusters, all appeared as a noticeable larger fuzzy star, very easy to find): M13, M92, M3, M15, M11, M22, M28, M4
Open Clusters (similar to the appearance of globulars): NGC 6604 (this was the only open cluster that I really noticed and remembered observing, I likely missed a lot)
Nebulae (Surprisingly easy? The views seemed...better than that of my telescope which could detect little to no nebulosity within these, except for the Swan nebula, perhaps the lower power caused the stars to blur together? All appeared as small fuzzy patches of light with slight variations in shape): M8, M20 (this one was barely noticeable), M17, M16
Galaxies (Very difficult to observe, probably the biggest disadvantage for the binos): M81 & M82, M51 (not including NGC 5195), M31 (located a little above the horizon, drowned out in light pollution, I'll have to wait for the next few months to give it a true proper view)
Large Field Objects (consisting of the Milky Way, countless stars, breathtaking views): North American Nebula (excluding the nebula which could not be seen of course), the region surrounding Sadr, the entire Cygnus region in general, M24 (was rather small and I couldn't detect as many stars as I did with the telescope)
Overall, I have to say that although it doesn't gather as much light and resolve objects as well as my telescope, trying to make comparison's between the two is not necessary. With the generous 4.4 degree FOV, it felt as if I was looking through Stellarium in real time; objects were framed perfectly against the background of stars. It truly is a completely different experience to that of a telescope. I finally understand what makes low power observing so good!