Venus has moved into Sagittarius by early November and continues to gain altitude as its progress along the ecliptic finally begins to yield height above the horizon in addition to elongation from the Sun (Venus reached its point of greatest elongation on October 29).  On this evening, Venus is magnitude -4.46, which is very bright but not quite as bright as it will be on December 3, the date of its greatest illuminated extent.  Unannotated image