Venus blazes in western Pisces in late January 2001, shining at magnitude -4.48 as it approaches its inferior conjunction in late March of that year.  This apparition of Venus is one of the series 1985 - 1993 - 2001 - 2009 - 2017 - 2025, as shown in my Venus cycle discussion.

This photo was taken with a Nikon FE2 camera at 55 mm, most likely piggybacked on a Celestron C8 SCT telescope. The slide was scanned in 2024.

In this photo, Venus is just be-low the Circlet asterism in west-ern Pisces, having just crossed the border from Aquarius a few days before. It will pass through inferior conjunction on March 30, 2001.