Bright Star-like object in night sky

For about 8 months or so now i have been observing a rather bright star in the sky. During the summer months i was able to see it from nightfall to around 11 pm eastern time. Now during the winter months i am able to see it from around nightfall to roughly 9 pm eastern. The problem is that this star is the brightest object in the night sky aside from the moon. It is not the North Star, and it is getting brighter.

Im no expert in astronomy so ill give you a rough idea of where i am seeing it. At nightfall in the summer it appears in a southerly direction at a 45 degree elevation from ground level and moves west in the sky, in the winter it appears at the same elevation and appears to start at south west and continues its journy west, right now it sits between south west and west. I am viewing this from roughly 100 kilometers north of the great lakes. If you look outside right now you will be able to see it.

I took a picture of it with a 7 year old 2 MP Olympus piece of junk digital camera and was still able to capture it. It probably wont help but who knows.

All i want to know is just what the heck it is. Is it the ISS, an alien mothership, an asteroid, planet x or just a visible planet? One things for sure,, its getting brighter every couple of weeks and like I said it is now visibly brighter than the north star.




I want sure what forum to put this in so mods do what you will with it.

Probably Venus...as some would be quick to say.

2nd line.


Cheers!!!!

This sounds like Venus to me. I am no astronomy expert either. I know there are a lot on here and they will chime in soon enough.

Yea it's more than likely venus. If you wanna know for sure though, download Stellarium. Or tell me what city/state/country your in and I'll confirm it for you.

Im in northern ontario, canada

I thought it was Jupiter...
I know there was some great photos
posted here of the crescent moon,
Jupiter and Venus.
This one is still in the sky, still visible
and very cool to look at.
It's either Venus or Jupiter.

I just checked stellarium. Is it visible right now in the SouthWest part of the sky? If so, it's Venus.

It might be the pleiades(NGC 1432/M42).

Here is a link.

Pleiades

Yeah it is visible in roughly that part of the sky. Well that answers my questions then. I mean i wasnt worried, its just not often that i have seen such a bright object in the sky that continually got brighter. With all this talk of meteors flying over Canada and with all the recent near misses by several other large objects over the past year or so this did raise alot fo questions for me.

reply to post by metaldemon2000

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Right now you are seeing Venus in the southwest.
Last summer you were probably seeing Jupiter in the southern sky.

Get this free program.
Stellarium

[edit on 1/8/2009 by Phage]

Venus is unusually bright last (and this) year. Venus is also called Evening Star and Morning Star, because for part of the night it disappears behind the horizon, and then reappears before dawn.

South Ontario here, I've noticed it recently because it's just so incredibly bright. I have so far assumed it must be Venus but it's without a doubt much brighter than I've ever seen it. Probably first noticed a week ago.

Cool, I am from Northern Ontario and I was also wondering what it was, started to check it out today and found this site, pretty neat to see others were noticing as well. Pretty intense to see this is the Bright and Morning Star, for those who read the Bible, this is great.

Living in Toronto and have been seeing this for almost a week. I REALLY don't think it's Venus. I'm no expert and will gladly accept whatever explanation there is for this, but this is like abnormally bright, and I think it has to be something else.

That's a good photo with the camera you described.
I've been photographing it for months, and one in the SE also. It is a UFO. Both are UFO's, and there are others at higher altitude to the north.
I posted vids up this week, the object in the SW & the SE.
Here is the object with photo inserts.
www.youtube.com...

YouTube Link

The object in the SE vid is @ www.youtube.com...

YouTube Link

TEXAS UNCENSORED

when I drive home from work in Malibu, California, I have pulled over at least a few times because it's incredibly bright in the sky...

If this is Venus, which I had assumed, I have never seen it brighter - and I'm usually one to point this out.

The last week though - I mean, really, it has grown and is very prominent.

Only mere miles away, in Santa Monica where I live, it's not nearly as bright as in the dark areas of the less-populated malibu, but wow, what a site. I'll just sit there and stare because I'm waiting for it to move or welcome me aboard. But I know better, I think.

Looks like venus (that looks like a star). Jupiter looks round and not like a star through a scope.

But yeah OP - Venus has its funky light show at times. I have seen it put on a metallic green-gold-red-blue show a few times, other times it does only say red-gold dances.

Does anyone live on Venus? I always hear Mars theories, but Venus (and Mercury) not many talk about possible life on there.

Perhaps Venus is signalling us, keep an eye on it though, I think it has been brighter in the last 2 years too. Mars on the other hand seems less brighter in the night sky.

Thread on Venus here www.abovetopsecret.com...'



wZn

Hey, this is my first post here, but I've been really interested in this too.
This star, planet, whatever it is, has gotten brighter and brighter.
It has been the brightest thing in the sky for months now and I've been wondering what it could be. I am in the south east.
I don't ever remember seeing anything as bright.
What is it really? Anyone know?

Thanks, great post

I am in Scotland and have been wondering what it is. It looks so bright and close it looks like plane landing lights.