Venus This Evening

Not  a wonderful image, but it does give a good sense of Venus's incredible brightness--second only to the moon in the night sky. (I don't know the identity of the star above it.) The time was 21:45. The impression of Venus's size is illusory, an artifact of my modest point-and-shoot camera (Canon SX 740 HS). I have always been fond of observing the night sky--especially from ages 10 to 12, with a six-inch reflecting telescope (big and very awkward to maneuver , but it did the job).  I still have the little notebook  with my observations from that period.