What that up there right now?

unkel

Brighter than any star and it's been established it is not in fact the ISS over here

Look for yourselves it should be very visible straight overhead now

What is it?

redman

Are your sure it wasn't Mars?
Its very bright and big at the mo and maximises this weekend.
See Daves pic of it last night at
http://www.irishastronomy.org/boards/viewtopic.php?p=17258#17258

unkel

redman wrote:

Are your sure it wasn't Mars?

I'm a nOOb in all things astronomy, so no, I'm not sure

I was only looking at it with my naked eye and my observation was that it looked like a star, but it was many times brighter than a star. So was it Mars?

ghostchant

If it wasn't moving, then it couldn't have been the ISS...I'd say it was Mars too

edit: I just re-read your post and realised you already knew it wasn't the ISS...sorry!

unkel

For sure it was Mars:

[Article] BBC

Mars will continue to be the brightest object in the sky for the next month

Mars will then rise in the east at sunset, reaching its highest position in the sky an hour after midnight

That's exactly what I observed last night

Flukey

Of course it is Mars. Like most planets, it is a great sight and very easy to spot, because of its brightness. Try Heavens Above for help identifying what you see and where it is.

androphobe

also notably more orange than star.

Flukey

The orange look is of course due to the famous redness of the Red Planet that Mars is often called. Most stars tend to twinkle whereas the prominent planets generally shine a lot steadier. They always look larger and brighter than surrounding stars. They noticeably change their position in the sky even from night to night, and certainly more noticeably over a longer period. These and a number of other factors enable you to identify the main planets. Mercury is hard to see as it is always near the Sun, but Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn fit into the category of prominent planets. If you are not an expert, a little bit of simple research will enable you to tell which one you are looking at.

snow scorpion

A clear night in the Bronx tonight, there were only two things in the sky: Venus to the south and Mars to the northeast.

:rolleyes:

well, I thought it was kinda cool.

Flukey

Seeing a clear night sky is always great, no matter where you are.

hamster

snow scorpion wrote:

A clear night in the Bronx tonight, there were only two things in the sky: Venus to the south and Mars to the northeast.

:rolleyes:

well, I thought it was kinda cool.

Yeah, it's great to have Venus and Mars together around 6pm and dark enough to see Venus. And Nice to see Orion back again chasing Mars later in the night.

snow scorpion

hamster wrote:

Yeah, it's great to have Venus and Mars together around 6pm and dark enough to see Venus. And Nice to see Orion back again chasing Mars later in the night.

We rarely get to see Orion in the Bronx. With all the streetlights here, even on a clear night, you rarely see more than 20 stars.

I remember the Irish sky as seen from a farm in Kerry. It was like looking at alien sky: hundreds and hundreds of stars!

Flukey

Any city is much the same, though of course we don't have the skyscrapers, so that helps. Still, you have to go outside Dublin and its suburbs to see a lot.

hamster

We're spoilt for planets at the moment!

I have jupiter and saturn for my early morning walks (7am).
Mars (under Aries) and Saturn (by Cancer) late evening and night.
And Venus (very bright now) around 5 to 7pm ever night. It's going to get slight brighter until the middle of this month.

Nice to see Orion lording the night sky again.

Ps.. hope the weather clears up again.

snow scorpion

Good Lord! How much brighter is Venus going to get?

I was watching it last night; it was brighter than some airplanes. I would have thought it was an airplane but for the fact that it wasn't moving. (A pretty neat trick for a plane in the air. )

yawnstretch

Normally I dont notice things like this but I spent a little while trying to find out what this extremely bright star in the west of the sky (not very high up) was tonight.

So is it Mars then? Didnt realise it could appear this large!

Freaked me out for a bit:eek:

slade_x

yawnstretch wrote:

Normally I dont notice things like this but I spent a little while trying to find out what this extremely bright star in the west of the sky (not very high up) was tonight.

So is it Mars then? Didnt realise it could appear this large!

Freaked me out for a bit:eek:

Thats VEGA in the western sky, part of the lyra constellation

If you look outside around the time of this post you will see MARS in the Southeast and then if you look to the east you will see CAPELLA, these three will be the brightest in the sky tonight and most nights, along with saturn which will also appear later.. maybe in 1 or 2 hours time in the East

Jupiter will be rising again soon, if your planning on getting out your telescope friday evening may be the best time to catch it in the night sky

yawnstretch

Thanks for writing back Slade - I didnt catch your reply till now but nice to know what I was looking at

Vega eh?

Cool