plz forgive my curiousity / bright star to the east

[jiminsheff]

I live in sheffield, s yorks and am simply compelled to post (what probably sounds a very dumb question), can anyone please tell me what the exceptionally bright star (or planet) to the east is in tonights heavens???

ps thanks SOOOOO MUCH in advance - and sorry for my poor knowlege of astronomy.

[jiminsheff]

ha i bet, along with our Canadian sister, i have found Jupiter

[Nexus 6]

Hi Jim, I thought it may have been Jupiter but it is now due south at the moment. Try downloading this Stellarium

set your location on it top get conformation of what's available to observe from your area as the hours/weeks go by.

[Nexus 6]

Sorry Jim, Jupiter is sitting South for me here, for you in Sheffield it is indeed on your Eastern Horizon. My mistake.

[jiminsheff]

thank you for the rapid reply, and i will take your advice also and try out the stellarium software thanks again.

[jiminsheff]

by the way - is it always possible to see the colour changes and spangles to the naked eye or is it owing to this weather that it appears so radiant?

[Nexus 6]

your welcome Jim, Jupiter is a magnificent sight at the moment, if you have a set of binoculars even they will show you its famous Gallilaen moons.

[jiminsheff]

hehe - maybe if i rise early enough i can get round the car-boot and see if theres anything there super-cheap to kick-start a possible new hobbie! Thanks again mate.

[Nexus 6]

Not a bad option or maybe pay a visit to your nearest Astronomy Society where if your lucky with the weather you may get to have a decent look at it, also check out your local Liddle or Aldi who sell some binoculars for around £15.00, a few members on the forum have mentioned those and they are ok for the money from what I have read.

[jiminsheff]

even better we got 1 just up the road (lidl), i'll give it a go this week, cheers Nexus:)

[umadog]

It's Jupiter. I see you have already found the other thread, so check out Jupiter with binos. You know what to do now!

The colours you refer to are due to atmospheric turbulence. This is always present but is more pronounced some nights and less obvious on others. It is much more obvious for objects low in the sky, as their light must travel through a much greater mass of air compared to objects directly overhead. Astronomers call the atmospheric stability the "seeing" and are happy when the seeing is good and the atmosphere stable. This enables many more details to be seen.

Here is Jupiter through a telescope in poor seeing:

Here is Jupiter in good seeing:

The magnification is lower in the first video, but higher power wouldn't make things clearer. The distortion induced by the atmosphere is why the Hubble telescope is in space.