Venus is fifteen days past inferior conjunction and has now moved west of Spica and will spend the next several weeks circling around to the north of that star as it crosses the ecliptic and resumes prograde motion. It now rises almost 90 minutes before sunrise and so therefore can be seen in a dark sky. It's not easy to detect, but even though I am not in an extremely dark location, the zodiacal light can be seen as the brighter part of the sky angling up from Spica's location to the top center of the image. Unannotated image.
In this picture we are looking at the pre- dawn sky about 1 hour 20 minutes prior to sunrise. Yesterday the crescent Moon join- ed Venus but clouds here prevented me from catching the pair. In a little more than a week, Mercury will emerge into the morning sky below Venus, which will afford us good imaging opportunities.