What did I spot this evening at sunset(7:15~8:05

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Hi all thanks for your input again.

Need to get this clarified can you help pleases.

To night at sunset I was watching the clouds and bird roosting and then noticed this bright object quite low in sky It only Showed up for about a few mins or longer but not 10 mins at most.  It was whitish yellow. Could this have been Neptune do you think? 

THanks again for your input!

Regards,

Mr Gazza.

[Moonshane]

sounds more like Venus assuming it was roughly west. Neptune is not naked eye generally unless you have bionic ones.

[Steve Ward]

Would have been Venus just after sunset . Neptune is just to the East of South right now.

[Pete Presland]

Venus is blazing away in the evening sky at the moment, very impressive!

[Wyvern]

Yep, Venus was blazing away just above the distant hills and amazingly below the obligatory cloud bank! 

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Good work people was forgetting all about that one yes it was in westish sky also. Another planet bagged with out meaning to find anything  this time! IS amazing to look at in clear daylight in it!

Mind you I may have spotted it early on this year in January morning along with moon and another planet cant mind what one now Stunning site that was and i was getting stitches out me broken arm that day too and is how it sticks in ma mined it dose! 

[Moonshane]

Jupiter is rising in the east at the current time at about midnight. it's very obvious and brightest thing in that area. Mars will be along too in a month or two at a decent hour.

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

Jupiter is rising in the east at the current time at about midnight. it's very obvious and brightest thing in that area. Mars will be along too in a month or two at a decent hour.

In deed it is having spotted it already and i for got how bright it was, However i need to hang on a bit longer till it comes properly out the trees (can only view it from the up stairs window for now)  to properly give it a good viewing and at a better time. Possibly at the end of this month or so will be better for me at least.

How easy or not is it to spot Mars? And what constellation's are Jupiter and Mars going to be in this year?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Venus is blazing away in the evening sky at the moment, very impressive!

I honestly cant remember the last time i saw Venus in the evening sky. Must be 2 yrs. Mind you if it is below say 30 degrees, i have no chance because the houses across from me block my western horizon up to about that height.

[Moonshane]

coincidentally, I spotted what I assumed to be Venus as I was on the way to the shop lat night. it was low in the west and twinkling slightly. I'll have a look through the bins when I got back, I thought. I got back about 5-6 minutes later and there it was still in the same spot and I looked through my bins and saw two spots of light. What on Earth????? It was obviously a 'plane that had been flying straight at me and it was 'in the same place' for a surprisingly long time!

[Stargazing Glaswegian Gaza]

coincidentally, I spotted what I assumed to be Venus as I was on the way to the shop lat night. it was low in the west and twinkling slightly. I'll have a look through the bins when I got back, I thought. I got back about 5-6 minutes later and there it was still in the same spot and I looked through my bins and saw two spots of light. What on Earth????? It was obviously a 'plane that had been flying straight at me and it was 'in the same place' for a surprisingly long time!

I'm really sure I did not spot a plane although am located in a flight path for Glasgow airport and they even circle about around the area from time to time but it depends on how the wind direction is fairing and how busy the airport is I guess and other circumstances I'm sure when this path gets used as its very infrequent thankfully!

Now pleases don't laugh but I did conceder it at first to be a UFO (something unidentifiable in the truer sense not necessary meaning the men are coming to clear that up!) but recognised it to be on the Ecliptic and it was planet shaped.  

[Moonshane]

don't get me wrong, I was not suggesting it's what you saw, just that it's easy to be fooled so always back up with a proper observation.

[Qualia]

I think the more time one spends out of doors observing the more possibility there is of witnessing unusual objects in the sky: meteors, perhaps a satelite or some space station, flocks of birds, helicopters, planes, even clouds and the such. Depending how the sun-light is falling, the angle of observation these objects may appear as they shouldn't or take us completely by surprise.

Near where I observe at the weekends, you'll see these massive storks nesting. One night a load of them decided to take flight and I wasn't ready for it. I jumped out of my skin and for just that split second I thought they were low flying stealther-fighters. A phenomenal sight, and without the knowing the imagination played some marvellous tricks.

In the day time I view the Sun whenever possible and viewing from the city there are loads of pigeons in the sky. As they glide in white light they appear as dark bats, but other times they're like curious pale whisps, ghostly ash-white phantoms drifting lazily across the Sun. The first time I saw this I thought somewhere over the city was burning.

I think it is always a good idea to keep Stellarium at hand, so we can keep ourselves prepared and if we do notice something unusual we can double check back at home. Other than that in cases of 'mysterious objects', I always think Hume is a useful thinker to adobt. "No testimony", he argued. "Is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be such of a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish."