• If you've been watching the western sky after sunset, you've seen the planet Venus. It looks eerily bright now - brightest in the evening sky for all of 2012! If you haven't seen it yet, look outside shortly after sunset, and you can't miss this planet. It's an eerie light in the western sky. Venus' brightness will surprise you if you've never noticed it before.
• Astronomers call this a greatest illuminated extent for Venus. The planet will reach greatest illuminated extent at the end of April 2012. What does it mean? Think of seeing Venus not just with your eye,

but with a telescope. Through a telescope, you can see the round disk of Venus - except that right now Venus' disk does not appear fully round and illuminated. Right now, Venus appears as a crescent, like a tiny crescent moon. And yet that crescent Venus looms large, as your telescope would show you, if you peered through one. Venus' lighted portion - the illuminated crescent - is at its largest in our sky: its greatest illuminated extent. Venus' illuminated portion covers the most sky on April 30 at 8 Universal Time.
• It's at or near this juncture that Venus shines at its greatest brilliancy in our sky. Are you seeing a very bright object low in the western sky after sunset? That's Venus, appearing at its very brightest as the "evening star" throughout late April and early May. Venus is so bright now that many will report it as a UFO.
• In the coming week, Venus will shine at its maximum brightness of -4.6 magnitude. How bright is that? That's about 70 times brighter than Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in all the heavens - now in the east part of the sky at nightfall. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere - where Venus stays up for a few hours after nightfall - it might be possible to notice shadows cast by Venus. You'll have your

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