Exactly so! The incident happened "mid-Atlantic", roughly eastbound, at about 0200 EST, which I'd approximate as - say - 0530 local. That's just before local sunrise, with Venus somewhat East of South, and heading "southwards". The planet, at that time, was also fairly low in the sky. So the FO was looking into the rising sun, with Venus fading both in terms of relative brightness, and sinking away slightly to his right.