This is the
sky as seen from Madrid (latitude 40N) at 18:45 local time on December 24th
2016.
The
circumstances of visibility are almost identical to 2008, with the difference
that, this time, instead of Jupiter, it is Mars that is nearby.
Venus is 25
degrees high in the south-west, in the constellation of Capricornus. Its disk
is, once again, just slightly more than half illuminated and, at magnitude
–4.3, it is an impressive sight in the evening twilight.
Ten degrees
above it is Mars, magnitude 0.8 and still unmistakable both because of its
strong orange colour and that fact that there is no other “star” of comparable
brightness nearby.