Venus and the Moon (and Mars, and the Sun finally)

Moon/Venus Conjunction

As bad as the seeing was last night (non-existent) it was superb tonight.  The sun finally broke through the cloud bank about noon and it got steadily better the rest of the day. Tonight was perfect except for a horde of pesky mosquitoes that have been taking advantage of all the rain and warm weather we've had lately. I missed the Mars/Moon conjunction last night because of the clouds but the Moon/Venus duet really put on a show tonight. I was able to capture a nice image of the pair framed by the neighbor's palm tree across the street. Mars was also in view, barely. I was able to make it out in my 10x50s after it got a bit darker.  I also used my new Nexus 7 tablet and Google Sky Map to help find Mars.  I've come to really like the new tool.  I've not use the 'point and shoot' feature of Sky Safari Pro, preferring to use manual mode instead, but I've been using Sky Map auto mode quite a bit ever since discovering that the compass and magnets don't go well together! I discovered that while geocaching a few days ago with it. The compass feature of c:geo was leading me all over the place until I realized that the cover had a magnet to turn the Nexus on and off by opening the cover. After removing the case, all was well, and the operation of Sky Map also improved! I also noticed that Jupiter is now high overhead, leading Leo to the west. I had originally intended setting up the scope for an evening of viewing but decided against it after providing dinner to some hungry mosquitoes.