It could be either Saturn or Venus. Both are seen in the sky from NY, but I'm betting on Saturn. Saturn seems to be pretty close to the moon lately, and Venus is usually seen pretty low on the horizon just after sunset.

Originally posted by biggie smalls
Yes Venus has seemed to be brighter than usual recently. Its rather odd, a bigger sparkle than it used to be?

Anyone have a clue whats happened? Is our atmosphere smoggier so it appears like this?

Venus goes through phases like the moon, new, crescent, & full. It just so happens that it is nearly full, which is why it seems brighter.

Wow, the moon looks absolutely beautiful right now. It is accompanied by the planet Mars, it's just breathtaking. I checked the brightness of the moon and it is at 95% for us, wow.

Sorry to go a little bit off topic but has anyone seen that really bright yellow star above orions belt? Its been around for quite some time now, I just always assumed it was Holmes but apparantely that started fading away quite some time ago. I think its in the Western sky too so I thought Id reply here instead of starting a new thread

Anyway, I drew a little diagram to see if anyone could perhaps tell me what star or planet this is...



Its strange that I only really started noticing it at the time of Holmes' appearance. It also seems to have moved across the sky as the weeks have gone on. If you take a look at the diagram it was almost parallel to orions belt but has now moved NE slightly...

I dont know much about astronomy and the constellations in the sky so excuse me if its just venus or something. I was thinking Nibiru, maybe?

Are your sure it's not more orangey-red? That's roughly where Mars is at the moment - and it's currently one of the brightest objects in the sky.

The bright star below Orion is Sirius, the dog star, and brightest star in the sky. N Hemisphere sky is pretty impressive this time of year, even with a full moon

Yes,
Last night I was thinking the same thing of how bright the planet was below the moon just after dusk. With almost a full moon it was very bright and I really could only see one other faint star at the time. I too at first thought it was a plane with its brightness and then I watched it for a min and realized it was a planet. I'm in Texas and it was about 10% above the horizon with the moon at about 30% above.

I'm from Portugal and today i noticed that bright light too.
I was thinking to myself if it is Venus.

But it is strange since i don't remember seeing it before.

No, I was not aware of that program. Thank you for posting it, I shall look into it later tonight.

Just download it and make sure your enter your coordinates.
I think you'll be pleased; I certainly hope so.