venus seems out to late refs Stellarium

[vman]

Hi Guys many thanks for the opportunity to join and learn from the forum. very new to this but have always spent hours gazing at the stars and watch every programme going. At the moment finding my way around the sky and trying out my new equipment. Now this may sound like a dumb question, but i think I’m seeing Venus slightly right of west and the brightest object in the sky, but it seems to late at night. i.e. tonight it was still very clear at about 9.pm at say 10-15 degree's off the horizon. Here is my problem, stellarium shows it well set at this time. I have checked the long and lat and the altitude would have to extreme to make any real change. my coordinates are 51 degrees, 54 minutes North and 0 degrees, 40 minutes West . I use Stellarium as my main reference at present, do i have it set right. Many thanks in advance:icon_salut:

Dave

[Tantalus]

Hi vman and welcome...

I've fed your co-ordinates into my copy of Stellarium and it shows that Venus was 4 degrees above the horizon at 9:00pm. It was around 10 degrees around 8:15, and didn't set below the horizon until 9:29pm.

Do you have the time set accurately in Stellarium?. You may also need to check your system time on your computer. I've found this link here:- Accurate Time which should give you the real time.

[Bizibilder]

British Summer Time????

[Skuber]

Hi Vman,

I'm new too, just finding my way around Stellarium

One thing I noticed was that the latest version didn't save my location the first couple of times I used it - it kept resetting to Paris.

This was because it has a 'Set as default location' that I missed the first couple of times - could this be your problem?

S.

[vman]

:)thanks guys, checked all the obvious. must be just the percetion between a computer screen and the rear thing. def is venus as I can just make out mercury to the right. its just Stellarium is showing Venus at dusk/twilight but i'm seeing the real thing in almost darkness. looks like a plane's landing light even in my light polluted market town.