TONIGHT, FEBRUARY 12, 2026, VENUS REACHES ITS CLOSEST APPROACH TO EARTH FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR — just 42 million kilometers away, shining at magnitude -4.6, and appearing as the most dazzling object in the evening sky after the Moon. As the Sun sets over the Pacific Ocean and twilight deepens into night, Venus emerges low in the western sky, blazing with a brilliance that seems impossible for a single point of light. It does not twinkle like the stars. It does not blink like an airplane. It simply