During 2007, Venus was the evening star for most of the year, but then went through its inferior conjunction in August, in the constellation Leo, going well south of the Sun.  It then emerged in the morning sky and rapidly gained significant height; since then it has raced eastward along the ecliptic and gradually lowered in altitude.  But even in early December it retains moderate elevation above the eastern horizon in this view about 1½ hours before sunrise, with the sky being brightened by a last quarter Moon to the upper right of Spica.  Venus is magnitude -4.19 this morning.   Unannotated image.