Venus is gaining altitude with each evening as it moves through Sagittarius.  Its magnitude on this evening is -4.09 and its elongation is 41°08'06" from the Sun.  Venus, like Mercury, is also south of the ecliptic but in its case, it will gradually move north again so that by early spring and late winter, it will undergo inferior conjunction far north of the ecliptic.  Note how close Venus is to the star λ Sagittarii, otherwise known as Kaus Borealis.  Tomorrow evening it will be an equal distance to the other side of the star, which means that on the other side of the world, they will be treated to a very close pairing when Venus will be only 9'31" south of the star.  Compare this scene to the previous iteration of this apparition, in November 2016.   Unannotated image.