what stars are close to the moon tonight?

im in the mid west and was just out side and looked up at the moon and seen a red tented star. i havent really payed attention to the stars and was wondering what it was? was it a planet or is it a star?

it clearly has a read tent to it and when you hold your hand up to the moon its about 7 fingers to the east of the moon. if my camera was worthy i would take a pic of it, but its not.

There should be two in that general area right now, venus is the brighter one, and then off to the left and up of that would be jupiter.

reply to post by NISMOALTI


There is actually 3 planets in the sky tonight...

I believe they are jupiter, venus, and mars...

Don't quote me on that... but there was three just over an hour ago... and the one closest to the moon is mars i think. Jupiter is the huge one in the early evening

Download the Google Sky Map application and find out.

Yes, I know... Google is evil and wants to know what your farts smell like, but if you're interested in space, it's a great tool.

cool thanks yall, i think the one that i am seeing is Jupiter

The one closest to the moon tonight is mars. Mercury, Venus , and Jupiter were all visible in the western sky after sunset. Mars and the moon were rising at the same time. Mars is at opposition right now so it is the brightest it's been in a while.

I rarely post, so I hope this works and doesn't break ATS policy.
Check out this free software. It's called Stellarium.

www.winportal.com...

I use this to check out what's in the sky at night.

Enjoy!