The thick clouds hiding the surface of Venus make the planet very efficient at reflecting sunlight. And it lies very close to Earth, as planets go, making it very bright in the sky.

Venus is usually very easy to locate. The best time is just after sunset (at eastern elongation when Venus is the furthest to the left of the sun) or just before sunrise (at western elongation when Venus is the furthest to the right of the sun). It simply outshines everything else in the sky. Some ancient cultures thought Venus was two different objects: an evening star and a morning star.

Even with a large telescope, you won't see much detail on Venus. That's because you are looking at the planet's clouds, not at the surface. But you can see the planet going through its phases.

The best time to observe Venus through a telescope is in the daytime, when it's higher in the sky and less affected by bad seeing. The proximity and brightness of Venus to Earth will let you use very high magnification. Sometimes amateur astronomers have reported dark markings in the atmosphere of Venus. These are real and show up in photographic images.

Perhaps the most rewarding moment to train your telescope on Venus is at its inferior conjunction. During this time, Venus is closest to us and less than 40% of its disk is illuminated by sunlight. No other object besides the moon shows us such a thin crescent.