Celestial body is not 'Christmas Star'

mayotom

Celestial body is not 'Christmas Star': Irish Independent


Over the past week I have seen Articles in both the Indo and Daily Mail, Claiming that Venus is currently the brightest Object in the night sky. I'm I right in thinking that this is the usual poorly researched articles in these newspapers and that Jupiter is actually the brightest object in the sky at the moment..

Celestial body is not 'Christmas Star'

A brilliant new 'Christmas star' about 100 times brighter than the brightest stars in the sky has appeared over Ireland and is expected to remain on view for several weeks.

Curious stargazers have been contacting Astronomy Ireland asking is it a 'Christmas Star' and if so why was it not seen last year? But it is not a sign of the Second Coming -- it is the planet Venus which happens to be coming close to Earth over the Christmas season.

slade_x

mayotom wrote: »

Celestial body is not 'Christmas Star': Irish Independent


Over the past week I have seen Articles in both the Indo and Daily Mail, Claiming that Venus is currently the brightest Object in the night sky. I'm I right in thinking that this is the usual poorly researched articles in these newspapers and that Jupiter is actually the brightest object in the sky at the moment..

The moon would actually be the brightest object in the night sky, then followed by venus and then jupiter

To quote wikipedia

Jupiter' Apparent magnitude ranges from -1.6 to -2.94
Venus' Apparent magnitude ranges from - 3.8 to -4.9


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

rccaulfield

There shouldn't be a night sky at all. Just say the sun is our nearest star and the brightest object full stop. It would be an eye opener for most of the planet who don't know what the sun is compared to the other stars.

slade_x

rccaulfield wrote: »

There shouldn't be a night sky at all. Just say the sun is our nearest star and the brightest object full stop. It would be an eye opener for most of the planet who don't know what the sun is compared to the other stars.

Yes, that will really help identify the bright objects for those that are in the shadow of the earth.

The sun isnt the brightest object full stop, that would lead to horrendous misinformation. And the sun is said to appear to be the brightest star in our sky because, well... it is to us. Generally people dont need to be told the sun is a bright object. They do need to know that the brighter objects that are easily visible at night are in fact not always stars

Another eye opener would be for most of who dont know what the earth is compared to the other objects in the solar system, specifically what we call unspecifically the other planets.

Conor108

So the 'star' to the left and up from the moon is Venus, yeah?

namloc1980

Conor108 wrote: »

So the 'star' to the left and up from the moon is Venus, yeah?

No, that would be Jupiter. Venus is low in the southwest at sunset.

rubbledoubledo

Hi all
Was going to post a question tonite.
Namloc just answered it for me. Out walking tonite around 6pm.
Very bright light in the south western sky.

I knew Jupiter was over head me near the moon.
So the other is Venus, way brighter than Jupiter.