Low lying light in South-Eastern night's sky

Only1Rovers

From time-to-time when I step outside the back of my house (in Sligo) at night and look to the South-East I can see a light about the size of most regular stars that flashes and moves gently across a small area. This object sits quite low in the sky.

I'm not looking of stories of UFOs etc., but was wondering if anyone else has experiences of spotting this little light, which appears to be hovering around?

Any ideas what it might be? There must be a logical explanation. It's out there now if anyone fancies a look.

namloc1980

That would be Sirius. Brightest star as seen from Earth. It twinkles alot and this twinkling can make it seem like it's hovering.

ThunderCat

namloc1980 wrote: »

That would be Sirius. Brightest star as seen from Earth. It twinkles alot and this twinkling can make it seem like it's hovering.

Yea and its also worth pointing out that the dust in the atmosphere can make stars low to the horizon appear to change colour and flash. It becomes less apparent the higher in the sky the star is.

Only1Rovers

I'm less interested in the twinkling/colour change of the object and more curious as to the explanation of its movement. Using a tree as a point of reference the object moved from right to left of it as I stood still. It was a perfectly still night last night so there's no question of the tree moving due to the weather. If tonight is clear, I'll have a look that direction again and report as to whether it's still there.

Muppet Man

Not sure if it is the same thing, but looking approximately east this evening - very low in the sky, twinkling red, green, blue - quite visible to the naked eye, and looks even prettier with bino's. I was in Cavan having a gander before I went to bed.... Crystal clear night, saw some terrific stuff. It's unbelievable what a pair of 10x50's will show that the naked eye doesn't.

Last question - about "one o clock" to Jupiter high in the sky almost directly above my head - looked like a small cloud spoiling a lovely view - it was actually a massive collection of tightly packed faint stars when I looked through the binoculars... That blew me away Anyone know what that was?

Edit : found it with a bit of detective work on heavansabove and wikipedia... Lol the bright sparkling one was Sirius and the one that first looked like a cloud was actually the Pleiades m45... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster)

That's pretty amazing.

Thanks,
Muppet man

DubOnHoliday

Muppet Man wrote: »

Not sure if it is the same thing, but looking approximately east this evening - very low in the sky, twinkling red, green, blue - quite visible to the naked eye, and looks even prettier with bino's. I was in Cavan having a gander before I went to bed.... Crystal clear night, saw some terrific stuff. It's unbelievable what a pair of 10x50's will show that the naked eye doesn't.

Last question - about "one o clock" to Jupiter high in the sky almost directly above my head - looked like a small cloud spoiling a lovely view - it was actually a massive collection of tightly packed faint stars when I looked through the binoculars... That blew me away Anyone know what that was?

Edit : found it with a bit of detective work on heavansabove and wikipedia... Lol the bright sparkling one was Sirius and the one that first looked like a cloud was actually the Pleiades m45... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_(star_cluster)

That's pretty amazing.

Thanks,
Muppet man

well done on the detective work, it's a great sight in binoculars. Plenty more clusters to see, look for the beehive next....