What Is This

[TopHouse]

Seen this on a few different evenings now, off to the left of where the suns gone down, not overly high, at first i thought it was a plane but it's not, we've see it a few times now and bright isn't in it! It's like the star of bethlehem, it's there now 7:00 pm Sunday and i cant find anything in stellarium that i feel it is!

Looking in stellarium it's about where hamal is in Aries, but it looks way too bright to be that. Any ideas?

[Cornelius Varley]

Probably Venus

Peter

[barkis]

Venus it be sir, shining like a shilling on a lump of coal.

Ron.

[TopHouse]

Now why wasn't it showing on stellarium! hmmm

[TopHouse]

OK, reloaded stellarium and went back in time to the right time, yet venus in stellarium was just dropping behind the horizon, yet in real life it was quite high, my location is bang on in stellarium, this is strange.

[TopHouse]

Many thanks for answering the puzzle though.

[Beulah]

I wish Venus was apparent in the evening sky like it was in 2009. A stunning sight on a winter's night.

[orionhunter]

this is approx how they look at this time of month/year.

[TopHouse]

cant understand why in Stellarium it was below horizon though when it wasn't. otherwise i would have found out what it was.

[nicnac]

you have put your location into stellarium? when i first downloaded it, it was on a pre set location that was nowhere near my actual

[TopHouse]

as default i think it's France somewhere, but I have my exact coords in and saved so it default to my house. might have to do some investigating. I double checked the time too and it's using my PC clock so... hmmm

[astoc]

Double check the elevation. You might be higher than it thinks you are.

John

[lostinspace]

Hi tophouse, just a thought, could it be the landscape youve chose to view from? i know there are some with buildings and trees that make the horizon seem higher?

The one with the trees looks like it was taken from my back yard

john

[TopHouse]

It's the trees and a barn one it's using, checked my elevation and it's about right and i am quite high (239m above sea level), strange. It's almost like it's about an hour fast.

[lostinspace]

just checked mine, fiddled with all there was to fiddle with and can not get it to show a false horizon without adjusting my altitude.

could where your getting your altitude info be wrong?

if not you`ve got a bonnified connundrum there....

just a thought, could you compensate for the error by pulling down the horrizon to where you think it might be by setting new altitude?

john

[TopHouse]

it's possible, tried waht altitude finding sites I could, but you never know if they're using the same info, ie google earth. To give an idea of the level of 'outness' it is, I see venus when the sun is going down, say 7pm ish. Standing at my back door it is not much higher than eye level (roughly) and well above the horizon, hmm, an idea, hang on (loads up gfx package)

OK, on the following pic, the star is 'roughly' where venus is at 7pm (ish) to illustrate our view/horizon, the red arrow is pointing at a place called 'bellmont' and is the site for the winter hill tv transmitter, as the crow flies it is 19 miles from me.

Yet in stellarium, venus isn't there, it's just below horizon which is what prompted the first question in the thread

[lostinspace]

is that bellmont hereford? that looks like hay on wye in the distance?

you seem to be on a hill? are you sure the co ords for your alt are set for your exact location?

jonh

[arad85]

I'd check the date you have set in Stellarium. Venus won't change relative position much in 24 hours so you'll see it pretty much the same wherever you are on the earth. The only thing that will change it's position relative to the sun by a significant amount will be the date.

On my system (The Sky) Venus is shown about 13 degrees above the horizon when the sun sets today....

[yeti monster]

is that bellmont hereford? that looks like hay on wye in the distance?

Belmont, nr, Bolton, Lancs. I go through Belmont when I go to Rivvy Barn..........

Sorry can't offer any advice on the main issue though Top House.