After disappearing from the late July sunsets, Venus returns bright in the east in the sunrises Saturn it goes through its opposition this Sunday and will be in conjunction with the full moon on the night of August 30-31.
Venus passed through its inferior conjunction position on August 13. This means that, on that day, Venus was located between the Earth and the Sun, at its minimum distance from usonly about 43 million kilometers (remember that the Sun is 150 million kilometers from Earth).
However, due to the small inclination between the orbits of Earth and Venus, Venus is not seen exactly in front of the solar disk at each inferior conjunction. In fact, the transits of Venus in front of the Sun, with the planetary silhouette silhouetted against the solar disk, are rare phenomena. Some of us were lucky enough to see the last two that happened in June 2004 and June 2012, but the next one, which will take place in 2117, is already reserved for other earthlings.
In the rest of its inferior conjunctions, Venus can be separated from the Sun by an angular distance of less than 5 degrees and it is very difficult to observe, due to the dazzling caused by the king sun. But now, just a few days after passing through its conjunction, it is possible to see our sister planet shine again shortly before the Sun rises.
Thus, after brightening up the sunsets for several weeks in July and disappearing in the last days of that month, Venus reappears now, very bright, at dawn. During this weekend and the first days of next week we will be able to observe it, low on the eastern horizon, shortly before sunrise. A good time to see it is around 6:30 in the morning (peninsular time and Balearics).