Anytime somebody asks, “Hey, I saw this really bright something in the sky the other day,” the answer is just about always “It was Venus.”
Not in my experience. I’ve found it during the day by staring intently at various small sections of the sky, until I happen to choose that bit which contains Venus. The peripheral vision trick seems to be useless when gazing at a bright sky; which makes sense because it’s based on the increased light sensitivity of rods over cones.
There are two bright objects to the right of Venus (but they sure don’t seem bright when they’re compared to Venus!). The first is the planet Saturn, the second is Regulus (Alpha Leonis), the brightest star in the constellation Leo.
If you have a good telescope, or even good binoculars the planets are quite a sight: Venus looks like a crescent moon, and you should be able to see the rings of Saturn (although the angle of tilt is less than optimal right now).
Where is Venus in its orbit relative to the Earth right now?
If somebody thought of it, and someone repeated it, look what it’s done so far!
If Venus is in the morning, then by definition it must be to the morning-side of the Sun, which means it is further along in its orbit relative to us than we are. It’s pretty high, now, so I’m guessing it is swung out about as far as it gets, and will start appearing to move towards the sun as it gets further ahead of us and heads for a rendevous with the back side of the Sun from us.
Yeah, what’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing, anyway?
Sometimes it gets refracted through swamp gas, which confuses the issue 
Now, look at the red light…
Flash
Umm…
And in the name of teaching the OP how to fish, your most convenient guide to what the hell is that bright thing in the sky is Sky and Telescope Magazine’s weekly Sky at a glance page
Scroll to the bottom for where the planets are.
If you have a decent telescope or a really good pair of binoculars laying around, seeing the phases of Venus is really cool.
Obiligatory link to Heavens Above. This is already set up for Oct 23 7AM at Santa Cruz.
Go to the Home page to find out what other objects can be seen, and when (like the Space Station).
Immensely helpful is the ability to go back/forward in time to see the location of various objects, including satellites. I’ve been looking at it to figure out what we’ll be able to see on our vacation to Tanzania in April next year.
Nice. How do you map that 2-D image onto the 3-D sky? Is it like you’re looking at the inside of a half-sphere whose circumference is the earth’s surface projected onto a circle?
I’m your fire, at your desire.
I use Stellarium. You can get a great layout of the night sky and even set your laptop screen to red so it won’t hurt your night vision as much.
Huh, my first guess is usually “The Sun”! 
John, yes it is a 2D representation of a 3D dome. You’ll notice that the East and West compass points are backwards on the paper. If you print out the map and then hold it up to the sky so you are looking at the circle from underneath, the compass points should line up. The edge of the circle is the horizon surrounding you.
eerie774, that looks like a nice program. I’ll take a closer look at it.
And what do we think we might see?
Rather than start a new thread…
Any suggestions from amateur astronomers out there wrt purchasing a nice little telescope? Can I get a good one for a few hundred bucks, and what should I look for?
erie774: Thanks for the link. I downloaded the program and it looks very cool.
I’d start with a nice pair of binoculars first. With as big objective lenses (the ones at the end) as you can afford. There’s nothing like binocular vision for looking at the solar system, and binoculars are far more portable and easier to wield. Of course, get a nice tripod (or at lease a mono-pod for 'em).
Holmes?, c/o Angua
Well, isn’t that just the neatest thing since sliced bread!
The skies are clear here tonight too!
Here’s Sky and Telescope on the object: Sudden Naked-Eye Comet Shocks the Astronomy World