Here is an image of Venus passing 1 degree from Spica this evening, with Mars a few degrees below. The inset is a hand-held afocal image through my 'scope, showing the current phase of Venus.
I'm currently learning how to drive the GIMP image editing software (as an alternative to PS7 on my old desktop), and it's taking a while to figure out how to do things! But I think I'm getting there slowly...
Thanks very much Paul, Michael, Rob and Trevor! I'm looking forward to the size of Venus increasing and the crescent becoming more pronounced over the next few weeks.