Object in the sky

Azhrei

Hi everyone,

I took a shot of the walk into Cobh from the bridge outside my apartment on March 1st, at 21:49pm (according to the information the camera stamped on the photograph). While I was taking the shot I thought there was a fairly bright star up in the sky, but when I zoomed in on it a bit I realised it has a curve, and is much too close to be a star, and surely it's not a planet. So, what is it?

Below is the photograph as I saw things on the night - I put in an arrow so you can see what looks like a bright star. Underneath that I've zoomed in to something like x8, using Paint Shop Pro 7, and increased the size by 400% so we can see it more clearly.





Does anyone have any idea what it might be? To me on that night, it was a stationary object in the sky, though I only stayed out for a few minutes. It was only when I got back and had a look at the photograph that I realised it couldn't be a star.

Duiske

I'm assuming you were facing in a more or less easterly direction when you took the pic ? At first I was thinking it could be Saturn, but the moon should be in your view as well, if your time/date is correct.
Another possibility is the star Arcturus. It was pretty bright in early march. Well, as bright as an object 35 million light years away can be

Again, i'm just guessing the direction you were facing from my limited knowledge of Cobh.

As for the shape in the zoomed pic, I'd image earth's atmosphere is to blame for that.

slade_x

out of curiosity, can you post the original image?

try comparing the distant light sources on the left of the picture which you could easily accept to be street lamps for example, or even what seems to be a lighthouse in the distance on the right and i'd nearly bet youll find them more interesting under the same scrutiny in comparison to that star you pointed out

osprey

As suggested in previous post, I agree that this is Arcturus and the atmospheric conditions account for the distortion, creating a sporadic curve.

Hal1

I had no idea how big it actually was till I seen this.

Azhrei

slade_x wrote: »

out of curiosity, can you post the original image?

try comparing the distant light sources on the left of the picture which you could easily accept to be street lamps for example, or even what seems to be a lighthouse in the distance on the right and i'd nearly bet youll find them more interesting under the same scrutiny in comparison to that star you pointed out

If you can point me to a service on the 'net that will let me upload the full original photograph, then sure.

Edit - hang on, will upload it to a friend's ftp site.

Here we go -

http://azhrei.neoneoism.com/stuff/DSCF3556.JPG

I was looking directly east into Cobh town, and the moon was in an SSE position over the harbour. I took some other photographs and the moon was definitely further south over the harbour at that time.

Azhrei

Hal1 wrote: »

I had no idea how big it actually was till I seen this.

You think that's big, check out VY Canis Majoris

slade_x

Azhrei wrote: »

If you can point me to a service on the 'net that will let me upload the full original photograph, then sure.

Edit - hang on, will upload it to a friend's ftp site.

Here we go -

http://azhrei.neoneoism.com/stuff/DSCF3556.JPG

I was looking directly east into Cobh town, and the moon was in an SSE position over the harbour. I took some other photographs and the moon was definitely further south over the harbour at that time.

Thats acturus, if you look carefully you can see Izar on its left and muphrid on its right, connecting their points draws an obtuse triangle in the sky



if you imagine it as the head of an arrow if you follow where it points it should eventually lead you to vega, no matter what its orientation depending on season

Azhrei

You're right, it must be. It corresponds to the night sky over Cobh at the time -

http://i39.tinypic.com/28m1rgw.png

I'm very surprised that I was able to pick up such detail with just my digital camera, though. Some nights we get really good clear skies down here and the stars are just unbelievable. I may start turning my attention to the sky from now on

gungun

Azhrei wrote: »

You think that's big, check out VY Canis Majoris

just looked that up
holy god it is truly mind boggling:) have to say the picture comparing all the planets/stars to it on the wiki page is brilliant,
i guess :eek: is the best way to say it:)