What Planet / Star Is This?

Good morning,

It's 4:25 am here in NW Ohio on a chilly Friday. I head outside to warm up my car, so I can take the wife Christmas shopping and as always, I look up into the sky and wow, it's beautiful.

In the Eastern sky, not too high up, there it was. The brightest object in the sky this morning - well next to the moon that is.

Shinning very brilliant white, looks almost like it's flickering.

What am I seeing?

Venus seems to fit the description. The following table seems to confirm the timing as well:

Venus

CHAMBERSBURG, OHIO
Location: W 82°11'24.0", N38°40'48.0", 0m
(Longitude referred to Greenwich meridian)

Time Zone: 5h 00m west of Greenwich

Date Rise Az. Transit Alt. Set Az.
(Zone)
h m ° h m ° h m °
2007 Nov 23 (Fri) 03:34 95 09:23 47S 15:11 264
2007 Nov 24 (Sat) 03:36 96 09:23 46S 15:10 264
2007 Nov 25 (Sun) 03:38 96 09:23 46S 15:09 263
2007 Nov 26 (Mon) 03:39 97 09:24 46S 15:08 263
2007 Nov 27 (Tue) 03:41 97 09:24 45S 15:07 262

Rise/Set/Transit Times for Major Solar System Bodies and Bright Stars

reply to post by elevatedone


I also looked up at the night sky in Georgia about 11 PM and watched the beautiful star and the vivid colors.

Could this be the same star?

Yes, definitely Venus - unmistakeable atm, high in the eastern sky before dawn

Originally posted by musselwhite
reply to post by elevatedone

 

I also looked up at the night sky in Georgia about 11 PM and watched the beautiful star and the vivid colors.

Could this be the same star?

Musselwhite, I believe the object you're looking at is Jupiter. But without seeing it myself, I couldn't swear to it.

reply to post by paraclete1


This star appeared to be closer to earth than the other stars. It was simply beautiful.

reply to post by musselwhite


I think I know what you mean. About two months ago, I was making rounds about 4 in the morning and saw Venus. I looked at it for about 5 minutes thinking if was an airplane on approach. I even saw another airplane turn on it's landing light and I would have bet money that Venus was in front of the airplane. I can understand how someone might think it was a UFO. Since then, I've been watching Venus and Mars most everynight at work. They are wonderful to look at. While I don't mind cloudy days, I hate cloudy nights.

Originally posted by paraclete1
Musselwhite, I believe the object you're looking at is Jupiter. But without seeing it myself, I couldn't swear to it.

Jupiter is rising at 9 am and setting at 7pm in Georgia this time of the year (from the link I gave). Meaning it's in the sky during the day. Saturn is out in the night, rising at 12.30 am, peaking after dawn.

Musselwhite, you've got to give a more detailed description if we're ever to tell you with any degree of certainty what you might have seen. Which position is it in the sky, North, East, South, West? At roughly what angle? How high up is it when you saw it? How bright is it in relation to the other objects? Does it twinkle a lot or is more or less steady with the occasional flicker?

most probably venus, it looks so beautiful in the morning.

The object you saw was the planet Venus. Have a look it through binoculars and see if you can make out the phase.