Bright stellar/planetary object eastern direction

ifconfig

I've noticed a very bright star (or planet) visible in the east
(front of my house)

Venus is to the west around now (midnight). This object is also
relatively low above the horizon and has a similar (if slightly dimmer)
appearance to Venus.

Is it Antares, Jupiter, Saturn even ?

in terms of magnitude it must be second most bright object visible
in the northern hemisphere around 11pm onwards local time
in the current late may night sky,

Grayarea

If it is north east then it is Jupiter. Should be about 13 Degrees up at 12ish.

Later,

Captain Chaos

Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are all very visible this month in the night sky. Its a good time for planet spotters.

The Hill Billy

The star you are seeing is most likely Altair.

At that time of night Jupiter is low in the SE; Saturn low due W; Venus very low WNW.

ifconfig

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm beginning to feel the urge to purchase a compass to establish directions.
I've a pretty poor directional sense.
What brands or types of compasses are reliable and relatively accurate ?
I assume GPS units don't help in terms of direction (only location).

I think I saw a navigators compass in a shop in Ennis a few weekends back
when I was visiting that town. It seemed to be a compass embedded in
a small ruler which doubled as a map reading aid.

Any recommendations on compasses ?

-ifc

The Hill Billy

Save yourself a few bob & find Polaris (the North Star).
You can figure out South, East & West from there.

Flukey

It is Jupiter. It is very bright, much brighter than any star and currently similar in brightness to Venus. The Moon is not far from Jupiter tonight, and over the next few nights. Jupiter is high enough to see, but still not rising very high these nights. Antares is nearby, west of it, and reddish and flickering. It also never gets very high.

Dr Pepper

Yep, more than likely Jupiter you were looking at alright.
The following link shows the sky chart for 23:30 tonight. As has been said by other posters, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are all clearly visible these nights.

http://www.heavens-above.com/skychart.asp?Y=2007&M=6&D=1&H=23&N=30&Lat=53.4&Lng=-6.467&Loc=Dunboyne&TZ=GMT&SL=on&SN=on&BW=0&SZ=500

I find the following site even more useful although the pictures can look a bit cluttered at times. If you fill in the same time (23:00 tonight) into this one, you'll see that Pluto is also in the vacinity of Jupiter and the Moon at the moment but you'll need super-human powers to see it in the sky!!
(Pluto is the grey 'E' like symbol, Jupier is the brown '4' like symbol, Saturn is like a yellow small 'h', Venus is the blue and white female symbol... See more)

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yoursky?z=1&lat=53.2&ns=North&lon=6.1&ew=West

It's easier than you think finding and tracking the planets. They don't change much from week to week so once you spot one, it's easy enough to keep track of it over several months..

Flukey

Years in the case of Saturn and Jupiter. Decades for the ones beyond them, if you can spot them at all. It is great for getting new people into Astronomy, that it is so easy to spot the likes of Venus and Jupiter.