On the first of Dec. Venus was about a degree from the Moon a hour before sunrise. The fog kept me from seeing anything.

Last night the sky cleared (2 days of rain) so I set up the telescope at sunset and viewed the moon while waiting for darkness. I believe it was the Caucas mountains on the terminator that had me glued to the eyepiece(s) on a high peak with a large deep narrow trench or valley running southwest. I'll have to get out the moon map and try to verify later today. When I finally stopped with the moon light clouds and haze rolled in so my original plan of trying to spot asteroid 20 Massalia was useless.

I practiced on drift polar alignment and had a now faint (due to haze) Rigel centered on the crosshairs for 7 minutes before drifting off. I conceded to the dew (around 2100) which was starting to drip of the telescope.

SteveS