Telrad

Not so long ago I've got acquainted with the Telrad object finder. This is definitely the king of all zero magnification finders, and I believe of many optical finders as well. Just remember that it is not just a red dot finder, which you are most likely familiar with from experience with some cheap telescopes. You need to learn how to use it properly in order to achieve unbelievable accuracy and pointing time under 10 seconds for any kind of celestial objects.

If you have a large enough aperture telescope (I believe it must be more than 8") you should consider getting and installing the Telrad device, which is around $40 at any popular astronomy store. Telrad may not be practical on small refractors as it's quite large. Despite that, it's relatively lightweight, even though it's using two AA batteries. The size is dictated by the need for a long enough light path for the collimated reticle image building. There are many DIY Telrad mods instructions and accessories for purchase available online. Most notably:

• Dew shield
• Dew Heater
• Riser base
• Blinker (Pulser)

However, it works for me as is so far.

Star charts

I'm not a big fun of using paper star charts of any kind. They are bulky, prone to damage in the field, require light source, and there are too many of them necessary to cover all my interests for a single night. Instead of paper I'm using the Astromist hanheld planetarium software. At the moment - on my Windows Mobile 6.5 phone, and on my old but still functional Palm OS PDA - in the past (by the way, there are iPhone and iPad versions of Astromist are available from the same developer, but nothing comparable for Android or Windows Phone 7 yet - very sad). Astromist is the best pocket star atlas and observations planning software available for amateur astronomers of the planet Earth, period. Highly recommended!

EDIT: So, by now (2016) I've made one for Android myself with a friend. See DSO Planner - the best handheld digital star chart ever built!