Bright object sky

ronbyrne2005

Whats the very bright object in eastern sky now (5.30 am ).

skelliser

its either saturn or venus, i think its saturn

check this site out www.heavens-above.com gives ya the star charts in real-time! fantastic site

lazlo

I saw that too. It was remarkably bright and didnt resemble any stars I've seen lately. Are you sure about that skelliser?

The Hill Billy

At 5:30 this morning both Venus & Saturn were low in the eastern sky.
Venus slightly higher than Saturn (which was slightly more to the north).

Mars could also be seen toward the south east - higher in the sky than the other planets.

Mena

I thought I was the only one looking at this this morning. It looked amazing. Going to check the heavens-above site when I get a chance.

Captain Chaos

It is 100% venus, its going to get a bit brighter this month, and will start to rise earlier. It will slowly start to get dimmer again as it is getting further away from us on it's faster inside orbit.

Its going to hit a magnitude of -4.6 which is fairly bright.

skelliser

in the story of jesus's birth dont they reckon now that it was probably venus the 3 wise men followed, something similar to the way it is now, it was ridiculsly bright this morning!!

skelliser

they = meaning some scientist paper i heard about a while back

legspin

On bright objects, about 9.30 last night I saw two satellites passing eastwards under what would be the bottom star of Cassiopeia (eplsilon?) They were definitly traveling in tanden. The first one was brighter. Did anyone else see this?

Calibos

So I've had to let the dog out the back garden every hour tonight because the poor thing has the squits.........:D

Hence me being up at 5:16am. That in conjunction with the clear skies we've had the last few nights and......

"OMG, I've never seen anything so bright in the sky bar the moon. Please let me have been alive for a supernova...Please let me have been alive for a supernova........"

I came back inside, turned on the computer and boards expecting to see one of the most recent threads mention a bright object in the east with the answer being Venus and what do I find??

One of the most recent threads mention a bright object in the east with the answer being Venus!!

Damn, no supernova for me:(

Figured it was venus though, it being in the east with the sun about to rise in an hour or so. Have to say I don't think I've ever seen it so bright. Is Mag -4.6 very bright for Venus or is it just that its over the sea with no light polution in that direction on a night with good seeing and with no moon in the sky?

I take it that the reddish "star" over Orion is Mars?

The Hill Billy

Calibos wrote:

I take it that the reddish "star" over Orion is Mars?

Spot on.

Captain Chaos

Calibos wrote:

Have to say I don't think I've ever seen it so bright. Is Mag -4.6 very bright for Venus or is it just that its over the sea with no light polution in that direction on a night with good seeing and with no moon in the sky?

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070914_ns_venus_morning.html

Dr Pepper

Nice article, thanks.. If anybody manages to spot Venus during the day, post it here. I'm gonna have a try at lunchtime - I've just consulted stellarium and the Sun should be due South at about 1:20pm, 38 degrees up in the sky. Venus should be about the same altitude in the sky at that time 45 degrees over to the right (West) of the Sun*

The challenge is set

* I suppose I should issue the usual warning - Don't look directly at the Sun, duh!

Fredrick

Woke up to let the stupid ass cat out and there it is in the east so bright it almost seems unnatural, very cool.

hamster

I have not been following the stars recently... but when I woke up early last Saturday morning at about 6am I saw Venus - it was so bright even for Venus!

I downloaded Celestia again and checked where venus was in it's orbit in relation to earth's current orbit. Sure enough, Venus recently (last month) just passed earth by in its inner orbit - so it's fairly close - 0.42 AU (150x0.42 Million km off the top off my head) as opposed to 1.7AU if earth and venus were close to opposite sides of the sun. Magnitude is a hearty -4.
I didn't notice much I guess until lately... a sign of shorter days and longer nights coming in.