Checked out conditions in anticipation of tomorrow morning's occultation.  At 6:15am MDT this morning (4/21/2009) both the Moon and Venus (-4.1 mags) were naked eye and easily seen above the Wasatch. At 7:20am MDT this morning, the Moon was still visible just before the rising Sun crested the local eastern Wasatch mountain range. Venus was not naked eye but was easily found by scanning along the ecliptic with 8x35mm binos.  Venus is a phased crescent. Venus should be visible at egress during tomorrow's occultation around 7:09am MDT. Astronomical twilight is at 4:57am MDT and civil twilight at 6:09am MDT. For tracked astrophotography, it is advisable to set up at 5:00am MDT, computer align your scope while the major stars are still visible and then put the scope into park mode until 6:00am MDT.   Alignment stars were not visible at 6:00am MDT. The Lyrid meteor shower will peak at around 4am MDT 4/22/2009 per the RASC Handbook. The IMO meteor shower calendar states for the Lyrids that: "The Lyrids are expected to peak on 2009 April 22 around 11h UT (ZHR ~20). Past observations have shown the maximum time to be variable from year to year; in 2009 the peak could occur between 3h and 14h UT on April 22. The radiant of this shower, between Lyra and Hercules, rises during the night. Watches can be usefully carried out from about 22h30m local time onwards from mid-northern sites, but only from well after midnight from the mid-southern hemisphere. The waning crescent Moon will rise too late in the night in the northern hemisphere to cause any problems." Although the Lyra-Moon geometry looks good for lunar meteor impacts on the dark limb of the Moon, due to the closeness of the Moon to the Sun, the Lyrid shower peak does not look like a good opportunity for lunar meteor impact imaging.  Clear Skies - Kurt