I’ve never taken much interest in the minor planets, because even the largest of them cannot be seen as more than a starlike point in amateur telescopes. However this year two of the brightest of them, Ceres and Vesta, are very close in the sky – for the next few days only about 10 minutes of arc apart – and are therefore easily visible together in the same telescopic field of view. They are in Virgo, a few degrees east of Mars, best seen at about 10pm, when they will be low in the west. A local finder map is here.
Meanwhile the summer triangle (Deneb, Vega, and Altair) is rising in the east, and this part of the sky has much to offer all observers. But if you have clear skies and a reasonably dark site, then in many ways the best way to enjoy it is to sweep with a pair of binoculars along the bright part of the Milky Way running through Cygnus. Any binoculars will provide rewarding views; the bigger they are the more important it will be to have some kind of support. A reclining chair with elbow support should do very well. I like to get comfortable, gaze at all those thousands of stars, and maybe wonder if anyone on a planet around one of them is gazing back at me!