Bright Star-like object in night sky

I think Venus is not brightly now than a time ago.. I think only the subjectivity of young users which only now discover the power of Venus, can make Venus to be misterious in their eyes.
As an argument, maybe 15 years ago, before Internet and stuff, when i was the young amator skywatcher and manufacturer of "telescopes" from lens spectacles, reading some books, i saw Venus multiple times. Then reading in books, i've tried myself to find Venus in broad daylight. Knowing the angle distance from the sun, so knowing about where to look, locking the glare of the sun, and first using a binocular, i've succeded to find Venus. Then, i saw it with naked eyes. It was a summer day, and maybe 2 PM or so.
So, Venus was very bright in those times too.

In this days, to me Venus it don't looks more brighter than i remembered seeing it many times in "my history".

In this days, we see the reality more through our LCD monitors.



[edit on 12/2/09 by depthoffield]

Venus is approaching Earth and will continue to get brighter until late February. It will then 'overtake' us in its orbit and will start to recede thereby getting smaller and less bright. Brightness also depends on its phase (where it stands in relation the Earth and Sun). At the two extremes Venus varies in brightness by a factor of 2 or so (optical magnitude -3.8 to -4.6).

WG3

When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars............


Maye what we are seeing is the dawning of a new day.

We could use some peace and a enough love to steer the stars.

I just found a great web site. It has an interactive star-chart.
www.neave.com...
You tell it your location and you get to set the time and interact with. You will then know what you are seeing is Venus or not.

Not the best around, but good enough. I believe that confirms the Stellarium render. The planets are in the house. Venus is the brightest and the last to go to bed.

WG3

I've been questioning this object's brightness as well, for I've never viewed a star to be this bright. What I've assessed is that the nights here are much brighter now, which is pretty cool. My backyard is illuminated...I wonder what's the long term effect going to be like. 12/12/2008, the moon was the closest to earth, but now this bright star/object remains quite interesting and close.

Venus will overtake Earth on the inside lane by the end of February. It will then recede away from us, so your brilliant evening star will fade once again, but to about half power.
Simple orbital mechanics.

WG3

[edit on 17-2-2009 by waveguide3]

I don't buy the Venus explanation. I've been watching the same object for a month so far here in Canada, and have never seen anything as bright as this object.

First, I couldn't find any historic report or known facts about Venus beeing so bright in the past. If this was true, the planet's "so bright-cycle" should be very well known today, and should appear in every basic astronomical book. I don't find it anywhere, not with a mension of beeing brighter than any other star in the sky. Also, beeing what it is now, medias should have covered this special event and inform population about it as they do for spectacular eclipses, comets or other unusual (but normal) phenomenons. They never did.

Lastly, let's hypothetically admit for a second that this unusual bright object is Venus. Fine. Then, since the planet always existed, since the sun has always been there and since we, on Earth, were always there, then we should always have seen this bright Venus almost every night (or even during day, because I actually notice the bright object appear in the middle of the after-noon).

This is my opinion.

I'm from Toronto Canada, heart of the city like and I've never myself known the city night sky's to reveal so much in urban centers.

I remember watching a few years back when Mar's was so close to Earth and you could see it with a "naked" eye. And I DO remember all the media hype about that.

So why now as someone mentioned above that there is no media on this OR as another mentioned, why isn't it such a known fact that every (so and so years) Venus will be super bright? First I've heard of it, but then again, I'm not an astronomer. But then again again, this sort of stuff always catches my attention and the ONLY reason THIS particular star has caught my attention so much is cause there is not anything being said about it.

I did a google search and found this site with a few others, just cause I wanted to know what the heck is going on with this.

Man, was I surprized that I was not alone and not just "seeing" things.

Watching this thread.

-Longtide

OK, just found this thread and who knows if anyone is still following it. I am in PA and see a bright object every night following a regular path. It becomes visible from my back yard at approx. 10:15 ish and I can still see it out of a window in the back of the house after 2:00 am. It is now the end of August...well passed the time when Venus will overtake the Earth. Or does this happen every year and it is simply drawing near again? Brightest thing I ever saw in the sky and I look up allll the time. I thought it was a plane coming at me the first time I saw it. When you stare it appears to "jump" slightly, like it's on a bungee or something so I thought perhaps a helicopter. But is clearly isn't that so I assume the bumping is just the trick of the eye. I admit to knowing next to nothing about the science of this stuff. Sadly I can't even give a very good coordinate. If anyone is still watching I could manage to find my long/lat I am sure. Interesting.

If Venus was supposed to recede, why is it that I still see this really bright star every night? In different positions too, but usually remaining in a stationary orbit. From dusk to dawn, ALL NIGHT LONG.

This star is so incredibly bright and continues to increase. I just noticed last night that this star has become EVEN brighter.

I have seen multiples of these too, some nights there will be 2, some nights there will be 3. Same size, etc.

I was even lucky enough to see this "star" transverse over the Detroit River as I and my friends were walking along the riverside. I held my tongue in fear of ridicule but as soon as the "star" crossed over into Canada and disappeared, I noticed that a bunch of other smaller "stars" began to move and I shouted look to my friends!

The big "star" returned to it's usual stationary orbit, but I know I seen it move...

Here are some photos:

i28.tinypic.com...
tinypic.com...
tinypic.com...

Here is a good one:

i29.tinypic.com...

What the hell is this thing? No way can this be Venus. Venus doesn't move across the Detroit River into Windsor.

[edit on 25-8-2009 by Troy_]

reply to post by Troy_

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Glad someone is still out there I definitely do not buy that this thing is a star. I have pics too...I'll try to post them once I figure out how.

Central Arkansas here...been watching this thing for weeks now. It's Jupiter. Took a telescope to a local National Park over the weekend (one with a mountain in the center) and looked at it, you can actually see it's moons. They show up as little specks around it, it's actually really pretty

reply to post by starsyren

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No, I doubt this is Jupiter. Does Jupiter just freely travel across the Detroit river in an instant? To disappear and reappear in its usual stationary position? To have other, smaller star like objects move in its presence? To emit its own light so powerful that it only makes you wonder in awe?

Really?

reply to post by Troy_

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I don't believe starsyren was talking to you Troy.

Starsyren was obviously referring to the post by glad_to_be_his.

To glad_to_be_his.....that could definitely be Jupiter you are seeing. It would be in the southeast at 10:15.



And almost due south at 2AM

Could it be the ISS? This is now the second brightest thing in the night sky, since it's had its little upgrade.

www.universetoday.com...

It's been there from late March.

reply to post by Boognish

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I'll gladly accept the fact that it is Jupiter. How long would it be visible over any one location? I did mention before about the apparent movement (bouncing), what would cause that? I can accept that it would be just an illusion, maybe caused by breathing or barely detectable moves your body may make. Interesting thing is my mom and I both observed this for the first time together and sat and watched it for about an hour and we both noticed the same movements at the same time. Like you would be staring at it and it would suddleny drop and then appear to "right itself."

OK, this picture was captured from a video shot of the object (it is rough, I didn't even realize I could take a higher resolution video at the time :puz






I took the stills with flash so the pictures of the object don't show up much at all (which is why I posted the first pic from a video capture - so you could get an idea of the brightness). This next picture is a still taken of the light and I realize it is very hard to see but I wanted to post it for reference to the third....I tried to zoon in on it a bit so you could see it better.





Finally this third pic is simply the second with the tone curve manipulated to make the image stand out a little better. I hope these come out, I am totally horrible at doing this stuff. ....at any rate doesn't look like a planet to me at all.

reply to post by glad_to_be_His

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The bouncing you describe could indeed be an illusion. It could be caused by many things like breathing, subtle head movements, tree branches, etc...

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by how long would Jupiter be visible over any one location (Are you saying the object doesn't move at all over the course of the night?). But right now, Jupiter should be visible pretty much from dusk til dawn.

Jupiter appears low in a southeast direction just after dark (9:30CST). As the night goes on Jupiter will move up in the sky and west until it reaches it's peak height (about 45 degrees), due south at 12:30 AM CST. From there it will move lower in the sky and farther west until about 5AM CST when it will disappear under the southwest horizon.

You haven't yet mentioned in what direction you are seeing this object in. But if you are seeing only one very bright object that moves slowly from the SE to the SW. That is Jupiter. If you are seeing 2 or more very bright objects in that area; one of them is Jupiter and the others are something else.

The only way to be able to know for sure if what you are seeing is Jupiter is for you to be able to locate it for yourself. I would start with that. I don't see anything unusual in your pictures you posted. I would say they are inconclusive. But it's not your fault; most pics of stars/planets taken with a standard camera are inconclusive and look exactly like yours.

reply to post by Boognish

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Thanks for taking the time to reply Boognish. I am sorry I can't be more technical with this but I don't know much in this area (other than I can find the Big Dipper) and I just don't have the time right now to educate myself. It took me hours just to get the pictures up.

What I meant by how long is it visible was how long would it take to trail across the sky, which you answered. Thank you. Honestly it is hard to tell how long it is visible as I live in a hilly, crowded area and the rooftops block my view of it until around 10:00ish. Pretty cool though. The video is much nicer as you can see the colors change and a sort of rotation in the video. Too big for me to post here though. Cheers.

Edit: Just wanted to add that this "object" is indeed moving roughly SE to SW....and it travels very much alone

[edit on 26-8-2009 by glad_to_be_His]