Minuscule nitpick: The usual term is "inferior planet," not "minor planet," but aside from that, Scott's right. An inferior planet is simply one which orbits closer to the Sun than we do. Since it's closer to the Sun than we are, it can never appear high in the night sky. For it to do that, it and the Sun would have to be on opposite sides of us; that is, it would have to be further than the Sun than we were (which it cannot be).
Every several months, Venus either passes between us and the Sun (called inferior conjunction), or else it passes behind the Sun from our perspective (called superior conjunction). At these times, and for several weeks on other side of this time, Venus is lost in the glare of the Sun and cannot be seen. As it so happens, Venus just passed superior conjunction. As of June 18, it is currently only a couple of degrees from the Sun (a pretty small angle), and therefore cannot be seen ordinarily. There are satellites designed to observe objects around the Sun, and they are able to see Venus, but aside from these, it is not safe to view Venus now.
That still leaves about 70 percent of the time during which it is possible (and reasonably safe) to view Venus. When Venus is furthest in the sky from the Sun, it is even possible to see Venus in a fairly dark sky. In a few months, Venus will gradually set later and later after the Sun, and become increasingly prominent in the evening sky. Then it will sink back toward the Sun as it approaches inferior conjunction. After several weeks, it will then become visible before dawn for several months. The cycle then repeats, taking about 20 months between each superior conjunction.
Venus is actually visible even during the daytime, although you have to know exactly where to look. Most human eyes do not naturally focus at infinitely distant objects (which Venus is, for optical purposes), and you'll skip right by Venus unless you're looking right at it. Then you'll wonder how you ever missed it. For these reasons, Venus is easiest to see in the daytime sky when it is near the Moon.
Some computer-controlled telescopes can find Venus in the sky, so you can observe it through the telescope without knowing exactly where it is beforehand. Such telescopes are generally programmed not to point to Venus if it is near the Sun, but even so, it is safest to make sure the telescope is in the shade before beginning such an operation, so that it cannot accidentally be pointed at the Sun, which may not only ruin the optics of the telescope, but also burn you, even if you are not actually looking through the telescope.
However, Venus is not generally a fantastic telescopic sight. Its thick blanket of clouds usually preclude any observation except the gradual passing of its phases (something like the phases of the Moon, although with Venus changing much more in apparent size as it gets closer and further away). There are some cloud markings, but the "color" of these markings is practically in the ultra-violet, so they'll be invisible to most people, particularly older people.
One aspect of Venus that is visible in the telescope as it approaches (and later, as it passes) inferior conjunction, is its atmosphere. As Venus comes closer to passing between us and the Sun, it appears larger and larger in terms of diameter, but also wanes toward a very thin crescent. During the last couple of weeks before Venus vanishes in the glare of the Sun, the crescent actually reaches all the way around Venus, like a faint ring, brighter on one side. This is due to the atmosphere of Venus scattering light to "curve around" the surface of Venus. It never happens on the Moon, for instance, because the Moon has no appreciable atmosphere.
In June 2012, Venus will be visible over much of the Earth (including North America) in a very special way; it can be seen, in specially constructed telescopes, cross the face of the Sun. At most inferior conjunctions, Venus does not cross directly between us and the Sun, but goes a little "above" or "under" it, because the orbits of the Earth and Venus are not perfectly aligned. But every 200 years or so, Venus passes twice across the Sun's face in an event called a Venus transit. These two passages are separated by eight years; the last one took place in 2004, but was not visible from North America. Because looking at the Sun is very dangerous, any observation must use properly protected equipment (that equipment including your own eyes, in particular!).
This cycle of two transits every 200 years won't repeat forever, because Venus and the Earth aren't in perfect synchrony in their orbits, but they are about that rare historically.