Very flashy star to the south.

So Glad

I'm just looking out the window now and there is one really bring flashy star emitting blue and other stuff? Is this Mars or Venus?

It's south of me now I think. It's quite spectacular.

mike65

Venus I think! (hav'nt looked but it should be about 45 degrees up).

Just went out, Venus is at about 35 degrees up, in the west. Mars is not visible I think. So it must be Jupiter?

Mike.

slade_x

Its venus. depending on where your looking it may be twinkling or not. Stars, planets etc. dont twinkle or spark, their light is constant. its just their light being scattered in a turbulent atmosphere, hence all depending on where your observing from.

Its one of the best indications of bad seeing conditions, under bad seeing conditions its not exactly worth your while going on an observing session, unless you have a huge telescope

mike65

If its Venus then whats that big, bright fecker to the west? (its not the moon!)

Mike.

So Glad

It's kinda overcast now so I can't see much. T'was a strange one.

slade_x

mike65 wrote:

If its Venus then whats that big, bright fecker to the west? (its not the moon!)

Mike.

I looked an hour late so venus could have been south/ south west at the time. if it wasnt venus then it had to have been sirius or if sirius was somehow blocked by a mountain or something then it would have been proxycon, which would have been much higher in the sky

darkmaster2

Around 9Pm last night I saw unusually bright red/orange object in the southern sky. I assumed it was a planet but it just faded away until it disappeared. It wasn`t clouds or anything obscuring it as the sky was clear. very strange.

Flukey

If you were looking south then it was Sirius. It flickers a lot. Looking west you would see Venus, which is brighter but very steady, so it wouldn't have been that.

ftodonoghue

darkmaster2 wrote:

Around 9Pm last night I saw unusually bright red/orange object in the southern sky. I assumed it was a planet but it just faded away until it disappeared. It wasn`t clouds or anything obscuring it as the sky was clear. very strange.

If it was bright and faded away, it was probably an iridium flare. This is caused when the sun is bounced off the flat antannaes of one of a group of satellites launched by the iridium corporation.
check out
http://www.heavens-above.com/iridiumhelp.asp for more info and if you register your details the site will give you times for more flares and when the international space station is visible from your location.

Overheal

There was some bright something in the sky in the western quadrant last week: what was that? Some people it seemed to move noticeably...more like an orbit, though.

The Hill Billy

It was most likely Saturn.

See here for a sky chart viewing from Dublin at the time of the OP's post.

darkmaster2

Looks like it was in the right place for saturn alright. There must have been some cloud that made it fade out so. It was really orange/red. Very impressive.

Flukey

Saturn is currently in front of Leo, so on these nights it is overhead. The bright object to the west is Venus. You can see it for a while after sunset, very high up, and the first thing to show after the sun sets.

Overheal

I saw something to the south again but according to that chart I think it was too low to have been Saturn...still it was doing some technicolor stuffs.

Flukey

That is Sirius Overheal. It is the brightest star in the sky. Only Venus starts to be visible before it on these evenings. Orion in the image below, is up and to the right of Sirius. Orion is unmistakeable, and in the diagram on the right you can see where Sirius is in relation to it:

Flukey

The moon is close to Saturn tonight and will be again on Thursday night. Saturn was to the left of it tonight, and it will be well to the right of it tomorrow night. Don't confuse it with Regulus though, which is also in that area. Saturn will be brighter and steadier than Regulus and it is further to its right.

From Astronomy Ireland :


1. Asteroid 2206 VV2 Flyby
A fairly large asteroid passes relatively close to Earth this week, and some of you with telescopes could see it at around 10th magnitude. An asteroid bigger than this is not predicted to pass closer to Earth until 2036.[/FONT]


2. Moon Occults Saturn
As reported in the Sky Diary of our March magazine the Moon will pass in front of Saturn in the small hours of Thursday March 29. Saturn will be visible to the naked eye all Wednesday evening to the lower left of the Moon, which will slowly close in on it. Closest approach comes as they set in the West between 5am and 6am.


3. Moon Occults Regulus
The brightest star in Leo, first magnitude Regulus, will be the Moon's target almost exactly one day later. In the small hours of Friday March 30th the Moon will pass in front of Regulus and snuff it out in an instant. Such lunar occultations are amazing to watch in a telescope and this event is so bright that binoculars should show it also. Depending on where you live in Ireland the occultation will happen between 4:15am and 4:30am but get ready a half hour before that to watch the Moon creep up on the star. Naked eye viewers will see Regulus to the lower left of the Moon all Thursday night of course.