I must still be half asleep! I do amateur astronomy from NYC. The object was VENUS. Venus is now once again an 'evening star'. It is extremely bright and can easily be seen with the naked eye before dark. Look towards the west again tonight around sunset. In fact, it will be a very bright evening object for many months to come. It gets furthest east from the Sun in Jan 2009 (apprx 45 degrees east). After that, it slowly begins to move west back towards the sun. When it gets really close to the sun on this return trip, with large binoculars or a telescope, you can even make out various crescent phases. It only does this when it's on the same side of the sun as earth. As it prepares to move between the sun and earth, it brings its dark side (side in temporary shadow) around towards us and we see less and less of the sunlit portion. Take a look tonight, assuming the skies are clear enough of course.
Venus? Geez. Did you even read what I wrote? There were two objects in the pre-evening SE sky. Venus is very bright and very much alone in the western sky.