Strange Light Near the Moon?

Every day I am out and about I always keep an eye open for strange places, and beautiful locations to film at (I am a indie film maker), so I am always observant of everything around me.

Last evening, 09/16, I was driving home from work at 9:30pm EST. I was heading East (I am in Pennsylvania). On this short trip home I noticed the way the clouds, and streetlights and everything were playing magic on my eye, and filled me with a lot of good ideas.

During this moment of wonderment the clouds slightly shifted and to the bottom right of the moon I saw an insanely bright object about 1 inch away (from my perspective of course) from the moon. I immediately thought to myself what star that might be, since I am not good with astronomy on that respect. At that point it started to slowly move towards the moon at about a 45 degree angle. It disappeared for a moment while it passed in front/behind the moon, and then on the exact same angle started to appear from the upper left quadrant of the moon.

It continued on this path for about 3-4 inches, stopped, and then reversed back towards the moon.

Now I do live near an airport, however it didnt have the tell-tale signs of a plane (plus its distance)

If i remember correctly there was a probe going to, or coming back from, the moon recently that could possibly attribute to it? I'm not sure.

Anyone else on the east coast happen to see this and can cooborate what I saw? Or offer a good explaination? It'd be appreciated.

I'm not saying it was Aliens or anything of course, but it was definitely an Unidentified Flying Object

It's Jupiter.
The apparent motion was because you were driving.

reply to post by Phage


I was stopped at the time when I looked up at the moon, taking in the surroundings.

reply to post by stevenreanimator

Did you also see Jupiter? It's pretty hard to miss, very near the Moon.

I did see other bright objects that weren't moving at all, yes.

reply to post by stevenreanimator


ADMIT it was a piece of tin foil blowing across your windscreen!

If you don't, someone else will.

reply to post by stevenreanimator

In that case it wasn't Jupiter you saw.
But Jupiter isn't just another "bright object" at the moment. It's very bright.

I have seen this also for the past week or so. It is tremendously bright, beautiful.

If that is Jupiter then wow!

Whatever it is just..... wow

Namaste

i also seen something weird by the moon the night before last, it was weird there were clouds in the sky and no other lights in the sky were visible, and i was also near an airport and even the planes were hard to see......also what kind of films do you make?

reply to post by Threegirls

Yes, Jupiter.
It will be further from the Moon tonight...and so on.
In about 28 days it will be close to the Moon again.

I wonder if the link I am going to include is the bright light on the moon everyone is seeing!

If you Click here and scroll down about 16 photos until you reach the title The Aristarchus Crater complex

Hmmm?

Its Jupiter, agreed phage from the description, chech out skyandtelescople.com and they will give you a breakdown of what is available to see in the night sky, from your location. I am 99%sure that it was jupiter. Its very bright as been said before and I questioned it the other day, wtf is that, checked online and yep, jupiter. For the 28 day thing phage is talking about, due to the orbit of the moon, it will move away from jupiters aparent position in the sky, as the moon comes around the earth again, it will appear to get closer to the moon once again.

reply to post by Phage
Very good Phage! Its normal that Jupiter goes around the moon and makes some random movement around it


The OP said there was an object that was clearly moving next to/around the moon..
So have a little respect, it was not Jupiter he saw.

I searched YT and found this...



and part 2 ...



Did it, they, look anything like this video's features?
Go at it Phage.

At around 17:10 of the 2nd video, he zooms into the bright object to the lower right of the moon and you can clearly see Jupiter's moons around it, the planet Jupiter.

reply to post by Techata

The OP says he saw "bright objects" other than the moving one he reported.

While the autokinetic effect can cause points of light to appear to move, it doesn't cause them to move in relation to other objects. Unless he was mistaken about the movement, he wasn't talking about Jupiter.

reply to post by JibbyJedi


watched both the vids and that bright object to the west south west of the moon is Jupiter, no if ands or buts about it , check jpl, check skyandtelescope.com to verify, and as phage said the bright star will appear to move because the moon is moving and it is a lot closer than Jupiter, Mars will do a dance in the sky and appear to move back on itself in the opposite direction due to the earth passing the planet on the orbital scale. It gives us earth observers the effect that the planet is moving backwards from its current path in the night sky.

reply to post by Phage


ok.hmmm im at a loss. With him being an indie film maker, why wouldn't he have filmed what he saw. We are drawing at straws because im not exactly sure what is going on now. On a thought, I know the moon doesn't have a lot of gravity but could it be gravitasionally lensing stars behind the moon? Adding that because of atmospheric conditions, could that have attributed to the apparent motion these objects were taking. I am a star gazer aswell, and i have see aparent motion like that. Albeit not the same.

I am on the east coast as well, and had just gotten off work on Friday. Being an amateur astronomer, I always gaze at the sky at night, sometimes with the naked eye, and others with a telescope.

That said, I saw the same anomaly that the OP saw, about the same time. I thought to myself which planet is that? I also have an app on my Android, called Google Sky Map. You point your phone at the object, and it displays what should be in the sky at that spot. It works great for star hopping.

Sure enough, it was Jupiter. Didn't think twice after that, being tired after an 11 hour shift, and went back inside.

Weekly Stargazing Tips Unless otherwise specified, viewing times are local time regardless of time zone, and are good for the entire Lower 48 states (and, generally, for Alaska and Hawaii). Check out last week's tips if you missed a night.
September 16, 2011 Jupiter rises just to the right of the Moon in mid-evening and sticks with it as they climb high across the sky later on. It looks like a brilliant star. Through binoculars, Jupiter’s four largest moons look like tiny stars quite near the planet.
September 17, 2011 Some of the oldest stars in the galaxy congregate in the globular cluster M2. It is in the southeast at nightfall and wheels high across the south later on. Through binoculars, it looks like a fuzzy patch of light in the northwestern corner of Aquarius.
September 18, 2011 Aldebaran, the bright “eye” of Taurus, the bull, is close to the lower right of the Moon as they rise shortly before midnight tonight and stays with the Moon as they climb high up the southern sky in the wee hours of the morning.

Source.

It was a beautiful sight to behold. Very bright. Not surprising to find a thread here about it. Et voila.

Originally posted by Phage
It's Jupiter.
The apparent motion was because you were driving.

edit on 9/17/2011 by Phage because: (no reason given)

exactly. if i catch the moon and jupiter out of the corner of my eye it does look like jupiter almost 'swings' but its obviously just an optical illusion.

reply to post by ziggyproductions05
You guys speak of little swinging movement wich the planets appear to do, but the OP said the object went past the moon all the way. So it gives me the feeling it was something else than Jupiter. We all know how planets look like and I suppose he wouldnt start a thread about it, unless it was something out of ordinary..
But theres no pics or video, so cant really know whos right