Brightest star ive seen

originally posted by: wdkirk
Brightest star I've seen:

I think Hedy Lamarr was brighter.

originally posted by: wdkirk
Brightest star I've seen:

Just don't zoom in your telescope.

It's like a giant crater field.

a reply to: Kandinsky

There is a theory that we used to have loads of planets and what we have left today was the winners of cosmic demolition derby. Except Pluto, I blame Neil deGrasse Tyson for spearheading that one.

originally posted by: wildespace

originally posted by: Forensick
Im on the East Coast of Australia and looking West towards the Moon is a very bright star about 7 o'clock of the moon with another star in between it and the Moon.

Any idea what this is, its brighter than the moon?

It's the planet Venus, and the other "star" is Jupiter.

The best way to check what you're seeing in the sky is a free software called Stellarium. It's very useful.

Yeah that looks spot on, thanks for the link, wouldnt mind a decent scope and camera, maybe something I look into one day.

Jupiter was probably the star in the middle but was probably 10 times duller, Venus looked huge to the naked eye.

Thank you.

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

originally posted by: GBP/JPY

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

originally posted by: Forensick
Im on the East Coast of Australia and looking West towards the Moon is a very bright star about 7 o'clock of the moon with another star in between it and the Moon.

Any idea what this is, its brighter than the moon?

Mars has been the brightest star in the night sky these past 3 months or so over here in the UK, so maybe it's where you are now as it's slowly moving further away here..

That Mars is so orangey red.......wild looking huh!

It's been spectacular these past months. The OP didn't say what he/she saw was white, so i took a guess at it bein Mars!

Yeah sorry, I saw Mars on the opposite horizon, if Mars was that bright it would have look eerie I am sure as Venus seemd bright enough to cast a shadow.

a reply to: Ahabstar

It'd be quite a sight to see a time-lapse of our system from, say, 5 billion years ago. You say 'demolition derby' whereas my mind goes to the pool table. Crash, bang, ricochet etc. Order from chaos.

originally posted by: Forensick
Im on the East Coast of Australia and looking West towards the Moon is a very bright star about 7 o'clock of the moon with another star in between it and the Moon.

Any idea what this is, its brighter than the moon?

Venus.

a reply to: Forensick

wouldnt mind a decent scope and camera, maybe something I look into one day.

Just a cheap $50 child's scope will give you a nice view,

It takes away all the glare you see and you see a beautiful round planet with just a child's toys basically.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Ahabstar

It'd be quite a sight to see a time-lapse of our system from, say, 5 billion years ago. You say 'demolition derby' whereas my mind goes to the pool table. Crash, bang, ricochet etc. Order from chaos.

There wouldn't be much ricocheting going on like on the pool table, since orbital velocities around the Sun are very great, and broken pieces would just carry on along the same trajectory. Rather, the main player is gravity, and larger objects affect the trajectories of smaller ones.

This kind of thing is still happening today, with some asteroids from the main belt migrating towards Jupiter and back. en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: InhaleExhale
a reply to: Forensick

wouldnt mind a decent scope and camera, maybe something I look into one day.

Just a cheap $50 child's scope will give you a nice view,

It takes away all the glare you see and you see a beautiful round planet with just a child's toys basically.

Hmm, this goes against every telescope advice I've ever seen. We're always told to stay away from cheap telescopes as they will only disappoint you with dark, poorly-focused images. Get a decent pair of binoculars (they're great for stargazing, but won't show the planets as discs, though), and keep saving for a proper backyard telescope, like Meade, Celestron, SkyWatcher, or Orion.

a reply to: wildespace

Hmm, this goes against every telescope advice I've ever seen. We're always told to stay away from cheap telescopes as they will only disappoint you with dark, poorly-focused images.

Poorly focused because of how they stand being cheap.

They wont have large lens and magnification but just enough to see the moon nicely and visible to naked eye planets.

If you have a very stable stand you can get nice views of the disc.

Get a decent pair of binoculars (they're great for stargazing, but won't show the planets as discs, though), and keep saving for a proper backyard telescope, like Meade, Celestron, SkyWatcher, or Orion.

Ideally if it interest you then save and spend a bit more.

However, just a cheap alternative to someone that just wants to have peek, a cheap telescope you can get from Aldi stores here in Australia when they sell them will do just fine.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Bigger ones did get knocked around. Smaller ones were absorbed. One kinda formed the moon out of debris from the earth.

a reply to: Forensick

Looks like it's Venus.

Here's a cool article all about it's brightness right now.

The goddess of beauty flames up to its maximum brightness a week from now, but that brilliance is tempered, because Venus has been getting noticeably lower in the southwest sky with each passing night

www.space.com... 15-sdc

a reply to: wildespace

I know all that mate. It was just a stylistic way of describing the way I imagine the activity back then.

I didnt want to start a new thread for this.

Same location but approx heading from North to South just now a red streak that disappeared probably 45 degrees from the horizon, would this be something burning up on entry?

It came from behind me so I didnt really see if it was streaking before I saw it but it probably only traveled 30 degrees of sky I saw?

Very red, very fast and stopped suddenly.

originally posted by: Forensick
I didnt want to start a new thread for this.

Same location but approx heading from North to South just now a red streak that disappeared probably 45 degrees from the horizon, would this be something burning up on entry?

It came from behind me so I didnt really see if it was streaking before I saw it but it probably only traveled 30 degrees of sky I saw?

Very red, very fast and stopped suddenly.

Sounds very interesting. How long did it travel for? If it was just a few seconds and travelled very fast, it could have been a large meteor. Man-made junk re-entering the atmosphere travels much slower and for longer.

a reply to: wildespace

Probably a second.

Could a meteor just disappear from view due to its angle to Earth, I have seen a few 'shooting stars' but they were always star bright colours IIRC and not bright red, perhaps a orange red is more accurate but more red than orange.

a reply to: Forensick

You have a PM, Forensick.

Please check out your PM on here, please click on the letter icon in the right upper corner of an ATS page.

For the record....it wasn't brighter than the Moon.