What is this in the sky? Please help explain this to me

I've been seeing something in the eastern sky here in Chicago. It looks like this here in this video. It rises around 3am and it has gotten 3 times as big as it was in October. It's brighter than Mars & Venus.

I've researched it alot and asked someone who works with satellites & it may be one of those.

reply to post by OneNationUnder


What I find strange is that even though I normally crash out around 2am and sleep like a log until 8-ish, both Friday and Saturday morning I work up at 5am and instinctively just walked to our back door, looking east I think. I too saw a massive bright thing in the sky and thought 'cool, UFO', but going out there it just looked like a giant star, kinda yellow (no, it wasn't the sun!). I don't remember seeing the moon near it though, I think it was in the West. BTW, I live in Australia. Just really strange I just woke up and walked out there...reminded me of Close Encounters of the Third Kind

reply to post by melsbells137


The moon is rising in the east in the morning.

Sirius is to the west and is quite bright.

It does look very odd,but I cannot say for sure myself what we are seeing.

I first noticed this thing a few months back and it still shocks me when it first catches the eye in the morning. It appears to rise really fast initially before slowing and it is the brightest thing in the sky by far. On a number of occasions I have also watched it fade away to almost nothing before becoming extremely bright again and there was not a cloud in the sky to blame.

Its quite amazing and all that is missing are the three wise men.

so that guy points at the moon first. then closes camera and shows us a red spot... how we even know he points at the sky.. its not like he zoomed in at the first video or something. i call bull for this one. Not that i dont believe theres soemthing they hide us but this particular video... nah ah...

Originally posted by Alda1981
so that guy points at the moon first. then closes camera and shows us a red spot... how we even know he points at the sky.. its not like he zoomed in at the first video or something. i call bull for this one. Not that i dont believe theres soemthing they hide us but this particular video... nah ah...

Well here again, to the YT defense, if you follow his videos, which I do on occasion, he's pointing his camera to the east right before sunrise. So the 'red' thing is in the east (where I saw it too on Friday)

Now, for the moon. I think (this is without conversing with him) he's pointing out Venus.
On Friday, I too went outside and almost gasped because Venus was so incredibly bright compared to the waning crescent Moon. And although I had just woken up, Venus didn't even look round to me, so I too couldn't make out what I was seeing.

I exacerbated matters because I accidently pulled up a sky-chart depicting Saturday's placement of planets (instead of Sunday) so that's why I thought the YouTuber had a point.
That's since been figured out (thanks Chad!)

As far as this being bull? I seriously doubt it. If anything, he's hugely mistaking which, I've called him out on a several occasions in the past. I think the objects he films are definitely there. His interpretation may be way out there though.

all i saw in the vids was a camera coping with autofocus on a faint object.
no wonder since cameras are build for more earthbound things in bright light.
so once you put your camera to the sky and leave everything on automatic, you film the wildest things.

when i saw a few other vids from carneyart i feel like saying he has no plan about videocams
nevertheless i like him as a person

if just someone would introduce him to basic amateur astronomy using something like an 8' telescope or so
(and i bet any amateur-astronomer would pe pleased to find someone who is interested in what one can do with such a telescope) he won't conclude such strange things.

reply to post by Ahmose


Thank you again for all that work that went into your post

First, I need to brush the Moon/Venus situation to the side. That's been resolve (for me anyway. Maybe not the YT)

So we're talking about that red body. Right?
I am in Florida. The YTer is in Michigan

What I saw hardly emitted any light. I mean, it wasn't as bright as the other stars and had a reddish haze to it.

I really wasn't prepared to see anything let alone make sense of it because that is not my typical waking hour. This it!

So what I need to do is get up and go out the same again this week. This way I'll be more cognizant of my surroundings..
But when this happened to me on Friday, Venus (next to the Moon) really caught me off guard. So I think I was still trying to process that and wasn't really paying attention to discern what I was seeing in the east.
But I did come back indoors, checked out what is supposed to be next to the Moon, looked again at the sky ( not totally accepting it because of its incredible brightness) and......put it behind me.

Then thinking I was just going to relax and watch the Sun rise, well....I wasn't expecting yet another 'wtf' moment.
So...that's my story and how it went down for me.
Weather permitting, I will attempt to get up early some time this week. That didn't happen today so....

Thanks again for your lengthy explanation. It really helped a lot (although what I saw wasn't bright )

reply to post by Alda1981


Someone posted the same sighting 2 weeks ago inNew Mexico and they also posted pics on ats in a thread. I will link the thread later. Right now I am at work and using my cell topost this.

I think what you might be seeing is a 'second sun' like a previous person posted earlier. Ever heard of Betelgeuze? This star is at a point of becoming a supernova. It's even believed that in a couple of years (in 2012 somewhere) it won't be dark for a couple of weeks or months.

Now here I go AGAIN.

Was that or was that NOT Venus I saw and what Carneyart saw?

I know this thread is a bit confusing because I was asking about two separate incidences (the Venus one and the 'red' object one) but right now, in this post, I am talking about "Venus"

I just stumbled on this article/blog. And this was the SAME day I said "WTF" when I saw (what I thought was) Venus. But I gotta tell you folks, what I saw (Venus?) was so bright that it took about 5 minutes to come to grip with what I was seeing.

Here's the blog:


Bright New Star In The Sky Shocking Video

Having heard the rumors of a bright star in the morning sky here in Central California, I got up early this morning to explore what should be the planet Venus for myself. I have been watching Jupiter in the evening sky which has also been abnormally bright, enough so that I had to break out my old telescope.

So This morning, I took my $99 telescope to the street in front of my house. Not the best area for star watching, but this thing was so bright there was no need to find a darker place. The view of the moon next to this bright star was ominous. The star was so bright that it could easily take your attention away from the moon. The moon was illuminated from the eastern side making for a beautiful half moon. Theoretically, Venus should also be illuminated on only one side as well but was not. (image above)
coupmedia.org...



Took these images with iPhone. Should be Venus 7:00am from central California on Jan 28th 2011. You can see the half mood and thus Venus should be illuminated by our sun partially only. The strange thing when viewing it through the telescope at 700x600 with a 20mm eyepiece, the planetary body does not look anything like Venus. It is completely illuminated and looks more like a star.

Hi all,

Thought I would get in on the act and show what I think it is that we are looking at in the eastern sky from Australia.

www.youtube.com...

Object is really bright to the naked eye. On the video I pan down to the sunrise for a relative direction. I am sure it is just venus, but so bloody bright.

Originally posted by outthere_3
Hi all,

Thought I would get in on the act and show what I think it is that we are looking at in the eastern sky from Australia.

www.youtube.com...

Object is really bright to the naked eye. On the video I pan down to the sunrise for a relative direction. I am sure it is just venus, but so bloody bright.

The astronomy-community is saying this/that was Saturn.
Do you think it could've been?

I am guessing it was a planet. Just thought I would post the footage in case it wasn't.

everything is soo much brighter lately, I'm seeing stuff I used to never see before. as if second source of illumination is up there atm.

Originally posted by wingsfan
everything is soo much brighter lately, I'm seeing stuff I used to never see before. as if second source of illumination is up there atm.

I too noticed that last night while walking. The stars (and planet, Jupiter?) looked like their light source was turned up a notch or two
Weird.

I haven't been up early since Friday (to see if I can spot this again) but I will try to before this Friday rolls around.

reply to post by Chadwickus


Yeah you're right, in the East - I saw it again 3 nights ago, and the moon was right below it...I guess this makes this bright thing Venus? Sorry if I sound stupid, but do you know if Venus and the "Morning Star" are one and the same? I always remember the Morning Star being in this same position when I was a wee lass. Cheers

reply to post by melsbells137


Yup Venus is known as the morning star.

More interesting videos have been taken from California with similar characteristics of blinking of what people would describe as stars or orbs. Here's an example of this. From the videos I've seen like what the OP posted, some stay glowing red, while others seem to blink differing amounts of blue, purple, red, and what have you. Here's an interesting home video taken from Ventura California from January 23rd, 2011.
www.youtube.com...