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whats that bright, bright star?

sarahlouiselove

By sarahlouiselove
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sarahlouiselove

sarahlouiselove

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Hello, please excuse my sheer ignorance... Im sure what Im asking here will sound ridiculoius to real enthusiasts.... but Im such a novice... recently I have noticved a star that is much brighter than any other star in the sky... it's already shining brightly by 4pm (winter) when it's only dusk really... and sometimes its the only start out at night.  It looks much closer to earth than any other star.... is it venus? Is it a satalite? please could someone fill me in- as my children really want to know- and I have no idea!!! Many thanks- sarah x

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ronin

ronin

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If South-West at around 5:00 ish it is Venus, it will get lower and disappear after a short time.

If it is in the East then Jupiter, it will rise higher as the night progresses and by morning will be low in the West and drop out of sight.

If you are asking about Jupiter and have reasonable binoculars go give it a look, you may/should see up to 4 moons either side of it.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Sarah and welcome to the forum.

If you haven't done so already, you might want to download Stellarium which is a free piece of planetarium software that helps you both find and identify objects of interest in the night sky. One of its most useful features, is that it will allow you to calibrate it with the longitude and latitude of your observing site (e.g back garden) so that the view of the night sky that it then generates is identical to that which you can actual see. There are also many other features within Stellarium that are also fun to play with and will certainly help you learn the night sky and keep you entertained when the clouds come in.

Clear skies for now and hope you enjoy the forum

James

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LeeWilky

LeeWilky

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Hi and welcome to SGL :)

Sounds like Venus to me but it could be Jupiter if its out all night.  Is it pretty close to the mooon later on at night?

As has already been suggested dowload Stellarium its completely free and will help you find out what anything up there is.

Lee

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ronl

ronl

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Hi Sarah welcome to the lounge,

you can see Venus in the early dusk, even when it still looks

like daylight, looks like a star but it's a planet, like the Moon

you can see it in daylight, it won't be Jupiter it's to early at 4pm.

Enjoy S G L

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