It seems a bit high up in the sky to be Venus, usually it's lower and closer to the setting sun. I was wondering if it might be Jupiter, which is also very bright. A quick look through even a cheap telescope should confirm, as Jupiter will have at least 4 clearly visible moons around it.

It's in the right part of the sky to be Venus though. The other evening there was a very nice view of it, high in the sky and with a crescent waxing moon nearly touching the horizon. Pity we can't upload photos to Mudcat as I got some very nice shots of the crescent moon one evening before Xmas with Jupiter and Venus forming a triangle. A digital camera works fine set on manual and using the optical zoom to get the most out of the low levels of brightness of the celestial objects.