Chris Miskiewicz announced that he would be opening one of the Howard Astronomical League dark sites to observe the close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. I set an alarm for 3:15am, and immediately went outside to check the weather. Upon determining that it was mostly cloudy, I thought it not worth the effort, so I tried to go back to sleep. Fifteen minutes later, I felt that I could not go back to sleep and I knew that Chris would be at the site no matter what, so I jumped in the Jeep and drove out there. The conjoined planets had not yet risen above the eastern horizon when I arrived, but the sky was mostly clear in the area where they would be rising in about 20 minutes. While waiting for them to rise, I took in Orion and the waning crescent moon, which were both already well above the horizon in the same area. The two planets were a beautiful pair both with the unaided eye and in the telescope, so this was a very rewarding trip! Chris’ image below is very close to what I saw without the telescope.  I packed up my equipment and headed toward my day job at about 5:35am.