Anyone else viewing that star in the sky?

Originally posted by new_here

Originally posted by Aeons
reply to post by new_here

 

Just before sunset and sunrise recently, you could have been seeing the ISS which I am given to understand was very bright from Europe.

Interesting, thanks. Never noticed it before the last week or so. Do you know of any reason it may be more obvious in the night sky than usual? Too cloudy for anything tonight!

Actually, I don't know - perhaps somebody with better experience with the ISS could tell you. I've read that people are surprised with how bright it has become.

I don't know if you can still see it. It seems to be over Asia now.

Originally posted by Oozii
reply to post by Ahmose

 

Hey Ahmose

I didn't think it would of been likely to see them either. But you never know eh.

It's around 8:30pm and im going to be out watching, to see if this star/object will be there.

Hey Oozii,
Yeah, it was worth a shot. lol
However, Have you ever turned your binocs onto the moon?
It is the next best thing below a telescope! lol

Also, Turn your binocs onto the Pleaides, and also check out M42 (Orion Nebula) with them.. you might be impressed!

M42 through some decent binoculars, might even get you wanting to buy a telescope. lol

clear skies.

In regards to the ISS~

Do you know of any reason it may be more obvious in the night sky than usual?

It is always in different parts of the sky for different periods of time...
So if you see it all of the sudden at a certain time, and never have before,
it's because it changes often.



[edit on 5-8-2010 by Ahmose]

Originally posted by Oozii
I live in Southern California, 2 hours from San Diego, 45 from Salton Sea.

I believe it's to the south of me. No other stars are visible in the area this one is located.

I don't know what star/planet/unidentified flying object you are referring to..but I am thinking it is Antares. It is a huge star, can be clearly visible from south. Antares is in the Scorpius constellation. I am sorry to say this but it is a such of wasteful thread without pic. You can get a good used digital camera for 100 bucks or so.

reply to post by Pilgrum


i dont think its a fire here in denmark the sun whas kind og orenge/red the other night to

reply to post by Phage


Well, Phage, maybe it's not a GOES satellite, but I've watched the orbit of a satellite, a few times, on clear nights where I live.
How do I know it was a satellite? It's my educated guess, so I really don't.
Could've been space junk. Definitely wasn't a 'UFO' or planet.
This thing was moving at a constant speed.
Maybe its a LEO (low earth orbit) satellite...

But, it looks like a dim star, moving in a straight line from one point on the horizon to the opposite.
Definitely wasn't that bright, but noticeable to say the least.

I am only trying to give an outsiders perspective.
Something more plausible, rather than the explanations I've been reading.
I can't see exactly what the OP is saying, only what I've encountered before.

Driving home from work tonight the sky was the clearest it's been here in a long time and Venus was the brightest I've seen it in ages, so bright I almost pulled over to get a better look at it. I can understand the descriptions some have made in threads here as it could be mistaken for a a bright artificial light at a distance and it will continue to get brighter until early December so the best is yet to come.

Venus current magnitude is -4.22 and will hit the maximum of -4.65 in December

Jupiter current magnitude is -2.77 with a maximum of -2.94 in late September which will make it about 1/3rd the brightness of Venus.

The 3 brightest actual stars are Sirius (-1.44), Canopus (-0.62) and Arcturus (-0.05)

The threshold for daytime visibility is -2.50 so yes, Venus can be seen during the day if you know exactly where to look for it.

EDIT: Jupiter has just cleared the treetops in the east here (11PM) and it's quite a spectacular sight as well but not quite the 'searchlight' that Venus was before it set tonight
Just for confirmation, I put the 'scope on it and could clearly see Europa, Callisto and Ganymede with a 5mm wide angle eyepiece before the cloud moved in.


[edit on 5/8/2010 by Pilgrum]

Hi last night I also caught this twinkling celestial body or should I say bodies I will upload it to my youtube account and post it soon.
Its Jupiter, Aldebaran, Vega, Altair or even Capella but the only twinklingly UFO type would be JUPITER due to atmospheric disturbance and Jupiters spin.
Video to follow.
Further look from your point in the globe to me says Jupiter or Altair.

[edit on 5-8-2010 by DreamerOracle]

I live in central Canada and have to say the stars you speak of have caught my eye many times. at times i can see sometimes three or four of these same type of things. they are always some of the brightest in the Skye, don't move so they are not satellites. As the op stated they seem to pulse or flash various colours like in those videos.

Not sure what they are really, but i dont seem to remember them a few years ago... anyone else do?? maybe they are gigantic reptilian starships that are mimicking stars as they hang above the planet waiting for an invasion or something!!?? lol sorry too much sherryshriner.. shes crazyy..

I just wish all could see the 1 I speak of sway left to right up and down. So tonight if there isnt some insane cloud coverage above my spot then I will come in ATS as soon as I see it and hopefully we will have a individual on deck who can use that astr. technology and locate it with all clearity because I see it move and no other stars move like it its almost inspirational because its a DANCING STAR or something... Check back in tonight ATS. Please someone when I put in this data use the software which I am completly ignorant of and lets see if its locatable on the software if not then we got some things to condsider especially if its in view now...

[edit on 8/5/10 by Ophiuchus 13]

reply to post by Consciousness


The solar system moves at a glacial pace compared to the lives of mere humans. The last time Venus was this bright was in 2007 and for Jupiter it was 1998. Venus, Mars and Saturn are currently quite close to each other from our point of view while Jupiter is currently keeping Uranus company.

As promised.


Excuse the wifes camera work I was on the nightvision cam at the time. Although it doesn't show much it was changing colour and twinkling.

[edit on 5-8-2010 by DreamerOracle]

reply to post by DreamerOracle


Just a quick observation but that planet has a 'half moon' appearance in the zoomed in shot exactly as Venus appears right now, it's at 56% and waning as it gets nearer to us unlike Jupiter which appears as a full disk and at that zoom level at least 2 moons should be very obvious.

I remember seeing a big star not to long ago, and when I checked it out it was Jupiter, I think we are all seeing Jupiter.

reply to post by Pilgrum

From the naked eye it seemed to change from white to red to blue etc etc as it twinkled but as in the Stellarium shot it is exactly where Jupiter should be. As for shape that could all be down to the flipcam maybe.


[edit on 5-8-2010 by DreamerOracle]

Originally posted by havok
reply to post by Phage

 

Well, Phage, maybe it's not a GOES satellite, but I've watched the orbit of a satellite, a few times, on clear nights where I live.
How do I know it was a satellite? It's my educated guess, so I really don't.
Could've been space junk. Definitely wasn't a 'UFO' or planet.
This thing was moving at a constant speed.
Maybe its a LEO (low earth orbit) satellite...

But, it looks like a dim star, moving in a straight line from one point on the horizon to the opposite.
Definitely wasn't that bright, but noticeable to say the least.

If it's moving, it's not a geostationary satellite. Geostationary satellites stay in the same spot in the sky all time (hence the name).

saw it two nights ago, grabbed the binocs, very cool huh?

I find it really amazing no one has commented or looked at my post with the links...

Double post.

[edit on 5-8-2010 by YouCanCallMeKM]

Originally posted by YouCanCallMeKM
I find it really amazing no one has commented or looked at my post with the links...

I don't...

Since you had a whole thread devoted to this fantastic find, and got the answer there. But a known star isn't nearly as exciting as something unknown huh?

You know, I could look up in the night sky and see several stars behave just like that, but that doesn't mean that I've made the discovery of the century. Or does it?

People really, really should relax a little and not get frantic about ordinary stars. Take an astronomy class if you are interrested in stars and space, you'll be amazed how much more fascinating things than twinkling stars there are out there

reply to post by nataylor


[facepalm]

I gave the definition of a GOES Satellite already.
Find my post of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite on page 4.

Stationary to a point on the Earth's surface.
You would see the satellite until A: it stopped reflecting light, or B: It was directed to another reference point.

With the massive amount of space junk, satellites (that we know of) and other things in the atmosphere, all of these things constantly moving, I am not surprised to hear of things 'flashing' in the sky at night.

Just think about the satellites that NASA let's the public know about.
Multiply that by 4 and that's how many the gov't won't tell us about.



But, as I said before, everything is relative.