Look at the sky

Steoob

can anyone else see that really bright light next to the moon? its too bright to be a star what is it? im down in kerry so maybe i can only see it here...

Flukey

It is the planet Venus.

Steoob

how often is it visible? ive never seen it before... not at night anyway usually in the morning and its never that bright

luckat

That's Lucifer. Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art...

monkeyfudge

Yep... looks like Venus... I'll get the telescope in a few minutes and confirm that it's not the Deathstar for you.

Flukey

It's been visible like that for months now. It is particularly noticeable tonight because the Moon is near it. It is only ever visible in the mornings or evenings, because it is always nearer to the sun than we are. Saturn is also currently visible if you know where to look, and if you are still up in an hour or two, looking east, you will see another very bright object, which is Jupiter.

timmywex

just noticed it on the way home aswell only 5 mins ago in wexford!! its kinda cool, with the moon so close and all

Flukey

You'll get all this kind of info from us over in the Astronomy section, under the "Sci".

A good site to check what you are looking at on any given night is Heavens Above. You can log in and register for free and then set your location and it will always show what you can expect to see at that time, plus other things, like when to see the International Space Station, which passes over Ireland occasionally. I've often seen it.

Daknight

just looked out my attic window,i really wish i had a telescope

Karoma

Moved from AH.

Flukey

Karoma, you should have left this thread in After Hours. All the Astronomy people know what they are seeing, but for those with less knowledge, they might be interested and seeing this thread in After Hours would be far better for those wondering what it is. They might not think to look in Astronomy & Space, or even know it exists. Keeping this thead in After Hours would actually be a better way of getting more people interested in using the Astronomy & Space forum. It gives us Astronomy folk a chance to let them know. Please return it to After Hours. Thanks.

DonkeyStyle \o/

^ Seconded, I wouldn't have noticed this on Astronomy tbh.

Flukey

Seconded, I wouldn't have noticed this on Astronomy tbh.

Exactly. Even though a link to it is still in After Hours, it is better for the thread proper to be there.

Karoma

Flukey wrote:

Karoma, you should have left this thread in After Hours. All the Astronomy people know what they are seeing, but for those with less knowledge, they might be interested and seeing this thread in After Hours would be far better for those wondering what it is. They might not think to look in Astronomy & Space, or even know it exists. Keeping this thead in After Hours would actually be a better way of getting more people interested in using the Astronomy & Space forum. It gives us Astronomy folk a chance to let them know. Please return it to After Hours. Thanks.

There's a link from AH that'll inform the others to look over here, where there is a userbase that (a) actually knows something, and (b) will not give the standard "AH response". It was moved as a courtesy, and may be moved back by any moderator of this forum if they feel like moving it back. The decision is now theres; I cannot move the thread back. Thank you for your PM, flukey.

homah_7ft

I was wondering what that was myself.

mike65

I took some pix but they're too poor to post so I deleted them.

Mike.

monkeyfudge

I got out the old telescope and had look...

Venus certainly does look nice... too bad Dublin is so bright it makes viewing the sky difficult.

Flukey

Karoma wrote:

There's a link from AH that'll inform the others to look over here, where there is a userbase that (a) actually knows something, and (b) will not give the standard "AH response". It was moved as a courtesy, and may be moved back by any moderator of this forum if they feel like moving it back. The decision is now theres; I cannot move the thread back. Thank you for your PM, flukey.

Fair enough Karoma. You will have noticed though that the standard AH response didn't come, and the question was answered by someone who knows. Even us that know something about a subject will spend a lot of time in After Hours too, so those posting a general query about a specialised topic will get a quicker response there. This one was in After Hours when I spotted the thread after all. Almost every thread in After Hours could fit somewhere else. While we do get some general queries in it, some people would not even know about Astronomy & Space, to even post a query there. So sometimes a very general query is best left in After Hours and specialist topics left to their particular forums, where those that know about them will start them anyway. It is just something to consider before moving threads. Thanks for responding.

Leidenfrost

#Elites wrote:

its kind of flickering aswel..thought it was just a star lol

that flickering is due to an effect called scintillation, basically it is caused by the refractive properties of our atmosphere.