The planet pairing throughout this winter has now moved to a position below, meaning southeast of, the two stars α and β Capricorni, and are about as
close as they will get during this apparition, since Venus is still north of the ecliptic but now noticeably pulling ahead of Mars in the race eastward.
On this date, Venus is magnitude -4.45 and Mars is +1.18; they are slightly more than 3° 57' apart.