After all this California El Nino rain -- what a surprise to step out the front door and find myself under a beautiful blue predawn sky dominated by a shining new morning star high in the southeast!

Ran back in and got my little 4 1/4" aparture f/4.2 Astroscan and enjoyed a few minutes of communion with the brilliant crecent of the sunlit side of Venus which having just swung ahead of the the Earth is a whopping 45" in diameter. Hence the view was quite enjoyable even at 16x. No detail was visible in the crescent.

Looking at Venus the seeing appeared good. But since I looked at no other objects, I really cannot tell. I doubt a nearby Venus is a good test object because its enormous size reduces the perceived size of the distortions, but on the other hand its brilliance exacerbates even minor effects of atmospheric ripples.

But what a pleasure it was this morning!