This morning scene was taken from Fredericksburg, VA on September 1, 2009. It shows Venus nestled with-in the confines of the manger ast-erism in Cancer, just to the south of the Beehive Cluster (M44), and Mars in the foot of the upper twin of Gemini. Mars is fairly bright at +0.97, slightly outshining the lucida of Gemini (Pollux), owing to the fact that it is heading to-ward its opposition in Cancer on January 29, 2010. Venus, at mag-nitude -3.96, is still high in the morning sky but heading towards its superior conjunction on January 11, 2010.