Bright star near Pleaides.

[mikeemmert]

What is the bright red object directly overhead (in Texas) at 04:40 A. M. 09/27/05? It seems to be brighter than Sirius. It is distinctly reddish and does not move. Mars is on the other side of the Solar System right now. Any ideas?

 

[bbrock]

That is the planet Mars. From now through November will be the closest approach Mars makes with Earth, and the best viewing for many years to come. I strongly suggest you take the opprotunity to view Mars as much as possible. You might even want to invest in a telescope for the event. It will be a while before you get this chance again. <br /><br />Clear Skies<br />Bill

 

[petepan]

Mike, you might just want to recheck where Mars is right now in your part of the world. It actually IS near the Pleadies.

 

[jandjgentry]

Hi, I was wondering about a bright object near Ophiuchus tonight, September 27th, just after sunset at about 8:00pm Pacific Standard Time. I didn't think Pluto would be that bright, and Mars is in the East, not in the SW where I was looking. What did I see? I have the Voyager Stargazer program and still can't figure it out. Please relieve my curiosity.

 

[jcdenton]

That would most likely be Venus. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

It would be easier to figure out knowing your location, but Ophiuchus should be enough information. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> I pulled a starmap for San Fransisco (an arbitrarily chosen location in the Pacific time zone), adjusted it for 8PM last night. Pluto is indeed the only planet shown as near Ophiuchus, but of all the ways to describe Pluto, "bright object" would definitely not be one of them. It's usually magnitude 14 -- beyond the reach of most amateur telescopes. However, Venus is shown not too terribly far from Ophiucus, in Libra. And Venus most definitely is bright. You probably saw Venus.<br /><br />If weather permits, look again tonight. If you have a telescope, even a small one, point it at this bright object. I think Venus should be showing a fat crescent right now, although since at my location I rarely have a clear line-of-sight to Venus, I have not looked at it telescopically for a long time. Anyway, this will tell you if it's Venus or not. Only three bodies show obvious phases to Earthbound observers: Mercury, Venus, and the Moon. Jupiter is also in the evening sky, but only briefly visible before it follows the Sun below the horizon; through even a small telescope it will show a disc with up to four bright points of light in a neat line running through its center; these are the Galilean satellites. (They're not always all visible, because sometimes they are on the other side of Jupiter or transiting in front of it.) Mercury is also in the evening sky, but is very close to the Sun now; it's a more challenging target because of that. Mercury will appear nearly full, as it's on the far side of the Sun right now.<br /><br />Neptune and Uranus are also in the sky at 8PM, but don't even bother looking for them without a starmap and a telescope; they're never visible to the naked eye. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[joshbe]

Its Mars. The ecliptic runs right next to the Pleaides.

 

[CalliArcale]

Well okay, Uranus is not visible to *my* naked eye. <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /> (I live in the suburbs, so there's quite a lot that I can't see in the night sky.) That's cool, though. I didn't realize it was naked-eye visible. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[jandjgentry]

Thanks for the input. I believe you are correct in that it is Venus. I just can't figure out why my astronomy program says Venus will start to set behind the mountains at about 6:30pm. Sunset is around 7:00pm and I thought Venus is usually close to the Sun. I am in Corvallis, Oregon. Should I correct something in the program? Maybe it is the Daylight Savings time thing. since Venus should be setting after the sunset time right now. Yes, It appears that in my program, the sunset time is around 6:00pm today. Thanks for helping me enjoy the sky!

 

[CalliArcale]

It might be daylight savings; Venus won't set until after the Sun does (currently). Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the particular planetarium software you're using, so I can't help you much with settings. However, if you want a quick and dirty starmap, one free source is Your Sky. It lacks most of the features of commercial planetarium software, and you have to convert all times into UTC, but it does work. Heavens Above! provides simpler starmaps with fewer planetarium features than Your Sky, but is an invaluable resource if you are interested in observing satellites. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>