The other night I took a star chart that I printed off of the internet , of the planetary line up, and went outside , facing southwest. We got our telescope out , but the old thing doesn't work! (It was a gift from someone who meant well, but I think it sat in their basement for 20 yrs! It did however attract our drunken neighbors who thought they may see something through it!)Someday I'll get a new telescope!
Anyhow, I could see it all without the telescope, venus, mars, saturn and jupiter (Mercury is too close to the horizon plus we have the mountains to the west so you can't see it unless perhaps you look toward the sunset at just the right time)
I also found the pleiadies which normally is close to impossible. Then we located the stars Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Rigel surrounding orion's belt. It was beautiful even to the naked eye.