An email on TAC alerted me to a close conjunction of the moon and venus going on in the morning. What was more, it was visible naked eye even in the mid-morning (it was 9:30 when I read the email). So I took my 8x56 binos into the chilly backyard (still in my PJs and bathrobe) to have a look. There were high thin clouds of varying densities hindering the view, but after a quick scan around the moon, I could see Venus easily. I called the family out for a look. Then I thought to open up the observatory to have a closer look with Big Blue. The observatory was still in the shade of the meridian tree, and the moon was passed meridian, so it was no problem. The two were on either end of the 3.5 degree FOV of the ST80 finder. I put the 13mm Ethos in the ST80 and could see Venus in half-phase along with the 1/8th waning moon. The illuminated sides of each orb were towards the sun, proving their separateness and that Venus is an inner planet orbiting the sun. In the scope at 170x Venus was just waning phase, shimmery in the seeing, and showed the contrast effects which make it look like clouds are near the terminator. The moon loomed large and mysterious.
I closed up after a half hour but kept coming out through the rest of the morning, and each time I was able to see Venus naked eye -- except from 11am and after when I needed to sit in shade and cup my hands around my eyes to block out all local light and the relative brightness of the sky, leaving a small gap to look through, in order to see the small light of the planet. If the sky was clearer I would not need to do this, since I think the low inclination of the winter sun meant the sky was not as blindingly bright as it could have been. I brought out the Astroscan and looked at the pair in the same FOV at 28x.
It was a very auspicious and satisfying start to the 2019 observing season. Nice to observe to the sound of a bird chorus instead of crickets, for a change.
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