Reddit mentions of Guide to the Stars

Bad seeing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_seeing

Take a look at this site:

http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

Find a location nearest your place. Look at the third row in the diagram, the one called "Seeing". It's a seeing forecast. Try and look again at Antares when the little squares in that row are dark blue. Then it should look much better.

Also, pick another big star at the same elevation (distance to horizon) and compare it with Antares. It should be the same. Now look at a big star closer to horizon. It should look worse. That's just seeing.

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BTW, Antares is actually a double star. Its companion is very small and pretty close to the primary, but it could be seen in at least 6" of aperture in good seeing. It looks "faded green-ish" to most people, although that's probably just due to contrast with the red primary (there are no green stars). Try and locate the companion - if seeing is good enough you should be able to see it. Perhaps, part of what you're seeing is the ghost of the companion bouncing around the image of the primary in bad seeing (but most of it should be just the primary distorted by seeing).

If you can't see the companion in a 15" scope, seeing must be pretty bad, or there's some problem with the optics.

Make sure the telescope is well collimated. If collimation is a problem, the image distortion would be static, it would not bounce around, but it's always worth checking it, to make sure the scope is in top shape.

http://www.cloudynights.com/documents/primer.pdf

http://www.stark-labs.com/craig/llcc/llcc.html

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/collim.html

A 15" reflector would certainly benefit from active cooling:

http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/55

http://www.garyseronik.com/?q=node/69

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To remove any doubt as to the location of Antares, perhaps you should get some paper-based charts. The electronic stuff is useful for quick and rough identification, but paper can actually be more precise. A simple planisphere would give you an instant confirmation for big objects like Antares:

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Stars-Ken-Graun/dp/1928771017/

A more detailed atlas can be useful for smaller things:

http://www.amazon.com/Sky-Telescopes-Pocket-Atlas/dp/1931559317/

If nobody has mentioned it yet, order a copy of the book "Turn Left at Orion." It has great directions for finding the best objects. And the illustrations are all sketches from a small telescope, not glorious Hubble images that might leave you with, well, unrealistic expectations.

A decent starmap is also very helpful for learning the constellations, and finding your way around the sky. Here's a nice large one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1928771017/

And this may not be for everybody, but when I was learning this spring, I put a glow-in-the-dark poster of the constellations on my wall, for those cloudy nights: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OB8RCA8/

That's roughly right. The Milky Way is huge and is up most of the night now. Around now, it is roughly at its highest around midnight in the USA. In a month, it'll be at its highest around 10pm. But anytime from 10pm - 2am should be fine during the summer.

Look for a spot with a good view to the south, especially, and with as few lights in that direction as possible. Go on a night when the moon isn't up (i.e., the moon is new, or sets before it gets dark.) Get a nice planisphere so you can oriented yourself. However, using a flashlight or even your phone will wreck your night vision, so resist the temptation. Use a very dim red light if you need a light at all. The MW will be way better after you've dark-adapted for a little while.

Binoculars will really add to the view, too.

If you don't already have one, everyone needs a planisphere! Particularly if you are interested in astronomy. I think wall art of galaxies, nebula, etc... would also be great. One of my favorites is the orion nebula. Also, books by Neil deGrasse Tyson are pretty good. And Carl Sagan's "Cosmos". Everyone needs a copy of Cosmos. As well as Hawking's A Brief History of Time..

I really really want it!