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What was the bright star beside the moon 2 days ago

Louisc · 2009-09-30 18:06:16

A couple of days ago, my friend and I observed a very bright star fairly close to the moon. It was a clear night sky. The moon was in the southern sky (ish) and the bright object was lower and a bit to the left of moon (in the eyes of the viewer). We were debating whether it was a star or a planet, or a helicopter ! My…

30-09-2009 6:06pm

#1

Louisc

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A couple of days ago, my friend and I observed a very bright star fairly close to the moon. It was a clear night sky. The moon was in the southern sky (ish) and the bright object was lower and a bit to the left of moon (in the eyes of the viewer).

We were debating whether it was a star or a planet, or a helicopter !

My friend said "it can't be a star, it's too bright".
Then we thought it was a man made flying machine, but not for long, it simply wasn't moving.

What was it ? !!

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#2 30-09-2009 6:07pm

aidan_walsh

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Jupiter (according to my highly amatuer astronomer investigations )

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#3 30-09-2009 10:05pm

Kevster

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STAR?!! Oi... ...actually, there's something to be said about that, as some believe that Jupiter is a 'failed' star (a so-called 'brown' star). Anyway, - yeh - it's Jupiter. It's always the brightest light in the night sky whenever it's actually visible. Apparently, Venus and Mercury will be visible next month too.

Louisc, download a programme called Stellarium, and you can then see the names of all starts/planets/galaxies/etc in your night sky.

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#4 30-09-2009 10:23pm

jumpguy

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Venus is visible (or atleast was in late August) in the small hours of the morning. It's a beautiful sight, very, very bright.

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#5 30-09-2009 11:17pm

Stargate

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aidan_walsh wrote: »

Jupiter (according to my highly amatuer astronomer investigations )

You must have been down to the Blackrock Observatory aidan_walsh LOL

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#6 30-09-2009 11:37pm

ynotdu

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is'nt Venus the Brightest of Planets when its at its highest magnitude?
I hope so because i've been telling people who would listen for a few years now:o

is'nt it also known as the 'Christmas Star'(planet)? It always seems the brightest next to the moon in the December sky.
These are questions not statements of fact as i am Lousy at Astronomy due to me losing interest in it because of light pollution and cloud cover most of the year in Ireland!:mad:

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#7 01-10-2009 8:10am

aidan_walsh

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You must have been down to the Blackrock Observatory

No, what was going on?

Actually, I used my copy of Pocket Universe on my iPhone to find out

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#8 01-10-2009 11:55am

DigiGal

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Jupiter.....Check Astronomy.ie

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#9 01-10-2009 1:19pm

Thrill

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http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=30&month=09&year=2009

NIGHT LIGHTS: Last night, the sun set but the sky did not grow dark. A pair of bright lights continued to illuminate the heavens:

"It was the Moon and Jupiter very close together," says photographer Monika Landy-Gyebnar of Veszprém, Hungary. "The beautiful pair twinkled brightly above our town's viaduct, no matter how the streetlights tried to overshine them."
The scene was repeated in evening skies around the world (see the images below). Did you miss it? It will happen again on Oct. 26th. Reminder calls are available from Spaceweather PHONE.

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#10 01-10-2009 6:09pm

Tea drinker

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I took this shot using a toucam webcam the other night.

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#11 01-10-2009 9:03pm

calchas

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nice pic, what scope? how many frames?

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#12 02-10-2009 1:54am

ynotdu

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ynotdu wrote: »

is'nt Venus the Brightest of Planets when its at its highest magnitude?
I hope so because i've been telling people who would listen for a few years now:o

is'nt it also known as the 'Christmas Star'(planet)? It always seems the brightest next to the moon in the December sky.
These are questions not statements of fact as i am Lousy at Astronomy due to me losing interest in it because of light pollution and cloud cover most of the year in Ireland!:mad:

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6. Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the Morning Star or the Evening Star.
Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light. Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. A younger Venus is believed to have possessed Earth-like oceans,[8] but these totally evaporated as the temperature rose, leaving a dusty dry desertscape with many slab-like rocks. The water has most likely dissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind.[9] The atmospheric pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of the Earth.
Venus's surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets were revealed by planetary science in the twentieth century. It was finally mapped in detail by Project Magellan in 1990–91. The ground shows evidence of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in the atmosphere may indicate that there have been some recent eruptions.[10][11] However, it is an enigma why no evidence of lava flow accompanies any of the visible caldera. There are a low number of impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is relatively young, approximately half a billion years old. There is no evidence for plate tectonics, possibly because its crust is too strong to subduct without water to make it less viscous. Instead, Venus may lose its internal heat in periodic massive resurfacing events.[12]

seems like i found a definative answer to my own question(although xmas star is not mentioned)
Full article is at link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus

Yes it IS from WIKI:) but it is an unchallenged page.

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#13 02-10-2009 8:11am

Evil Phil

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aidan_walsh wrote: »

No, what was going on?

Actually, I used my copy of Pocket Universe on my iPhone to find out

+1.

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#14 02-10-2009 5:00pm

Tea drinker

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calchas wrote: »

nice pic, what scope? how many frames?

An Orion Optics 8" F6 newtonian, about 350 frames. Used a 5x telextender to enlarge the image.

Still trying to get the best out of the Toucam, haven't quite got the hang of processign the colour RAW mod frames yet.
Iris is supposed to do it right, I'll probably check tonight!

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#15 03-10-2009 10:13am

calchas

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In general
Moon is brightest, then venus, the jupiter

Calchas

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#16 06-10-2009 7:29am

mukki

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DigiGal wrote: »

Jupiter.....Check Astronomy.ie

-1

they will just try to sell you stuff

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#17 06-10-2009 4:12pm

muskyj

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mukki wrote: »

-1

they will just try to sell you stuff

+1

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#18 06-10-2009 5:27pm

DigiGal

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mukki wrote: »

-1

they will just try to sell you stuff

How else are they supposed to make money?????????????

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#19 06-10-2009 6:12pm

Ostrom

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DigiGal wrote: »

How else are they supposed to make money?????????????

There has been a long debate about the conduct of AI over the past year. AI as an organization is essentially split between the store, and 'Astronomy Ireland' which has attempted to position itself as a charity. Many users have had negative experiences with both, much of which related to attempted profiteering.

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#20 06-10-2009 7:01pm

ynotdu

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DigiGal wrote: »

How else are they supposed to make money?????????????

Hi,ya DigiGal,if there is one thing i hate on boards is a poster trying to be helpful and genuine appearing to be 'ganged up' by replys from others.so please don't think this is an attack on you or your post:)

Astronomy Ireland and Mr Moore have lost the respect of almost all boardsies since Mr MORE turned Astronomy into a money making racket for himself.In the process he has made the cost of his 'events' prohibitive to many, and worst of all to kids who are just getting started.

it beats me why RTE continue to make him the 'voice of Astronomy'but they do.

As a previous poster has said there has been a long running thread about AI on boards at this link.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055536925

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#21 07-10-2009 1:55pm

DigiGal

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ynotdu wrote: »

Hi,ya DigiGal,if there is one thing i hate on boards is a poster trying to be helpful and genuine appearing to be 'ganged up' by replys from others.so please don't think this is an attack on you or your post:)

Astronomy Ireland and Mr Moore have lost the respect of almost all boardsies since Mr MORE turned Astronomy into a money making racket for himself.In the process he has made the cost of his 'events' prohibitive to many, and worst of all to kids who are just getting started.

it beats me why RTE continue to make him the 'voice of Astronomy'but they do.

As a previous poster has said there has been a long running thread about AI on boards at this link.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055536925

I just like their Jupiter/mars and moon watches....always free, always have great craic, meet cool people etc.

Don't have to buy of them if ya don't want to...
I mean in this day in age everyone is trying to make money out of everyone..its called business. Even charity is a money making racket these days

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#22 07-10-2009 8:05pm

ynotdu

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DigiGal wrote: »

I just like their Jupiter/mars and moon watches....always free, always have great craic, meet cool people etc.

Don't have to buy of them if ya don't want to...
I mean in this day in age everyone is trying to make money out of everyone..its called business. Even charity is a money making racket these days

Glad You get enjoyment from AI:)
A lot of people feel it blurred the line between pure Amatour Astronomy(were people just meet and enjoy the friendship of a very minority interest)and buisness.I am not up to date with AI anymore as i gave up on them!

They were charging euro,s for a 30 second look through a telescope in the phoenix park when celestial events happened.

AI was charging premioum phone rates for ISS sightings which were freely available on the net.

He is of course entitled to run a buisness,but hey lets keep amatour Astronomy Amatour,many groups meet and share for free other than AI.

As for charities i know exactly what you mean,i volunteered for two until i discovered only 3 cents in every Euro was going to their cause.
I cannot name them but they were not any of the well known charities most of whom do really genuine work!
cheers

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#23 08-10-2009 11:35pm

In_tuition

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Guys download Stellarium, google it. Set your location as Dublin and it shows everything that in the sky above at night, fiddle around with it yourself, it's an amazing piece of software, you don't need an internet connection once you download it.

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