What did I see?

[rusirius]

Comming home this evening at around 17:10 I saw a very bright 'star' roughly WSW. The object was so bright and big that at first I assumed it must be Jupiter, but it seemed wrongly placed - much too high - Jupiter should have been practically on the horizon. Now Jupiter is the biggest an brightest object that I have seen in the sky apart from the moon, yet this was at least as big and bright. By the time I arrived home (17:45ish) the 'star' was still there and about 20deg up from the horizon. I checked Stellarium and sure enough Jupiter should have been already just below the horizon. I wondered whether it could be Venus, but Venus is white whereas this was yellowish. Also it seemed much bigger than Venus the last time I saw it.

I had a look through binnoculars but all I could see was a big blob of yellowish light. I had another look after dinner (18:20) an it was still there and well clear of the obstructed view I have of that particular horizon. 10 minutes later when I came to write this post it was gone. It seemed strange that it would go down so quickly. Stellarium shows Venus just above the horizon as I write, but since my view is obstructed, it might well have disappeared behind the trees and houses.

Could it have indeed been Venus looking a bit yellowish through the thickness of the atmosphere?

[Kai]

Deffinatly sounds like Venus , you cant miss it

[Greg]

Deffinatly sounds like Venus , you cant miss it

Ditto...

[rusirius]

Given its position in comparison to sunset I would assume that its at its greatest eastern elongation at the moment but I've never seen it looking that big before. Last time I saw it, it was much smaller and we could see a gibbeous phase just like you would see on the moon.

[Kai]

Good isnt it

[ChrisEdu]

Sounds like Venus to me, too!

[mdstuart]

Yes, Venus, looks like a half moon using a higher power lens at the moment.

[Taff]

Hi' To me you was looking at venus.Taff