Supernova maybe?

[wutang137]

ok so i dont really know too much about the whole space thing ha, but anyways im in steamboat springs, colorado  and about south south-east and theres a i think a star thats why brighter than any other and it looks like reds and yellows are "exploding" off the star. but its nothing to big i wouldn't think. can someone please help me out!?

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>ok so i dont really know too much about the whole space thing ha, but anyways im in steamboat springs, colorado&nbsp; and about south south-east and theres a i think a star thats why brighter than any other and it looks like reds and yellows are "exploding" off the star. but its nothing to big i wouldn't think. can someone please help me out!? <br />Posted by wutang137</DIV></p><p>Welcome to Space.com! You came to the right place to ask the question.<br /><br />You are most likely seeing the star Sirius. It is the brightest star in the sky. Especially when it is low in the sky, the twinkling effect makes is get brigher and dimmer and flash many colors. Impressive, ain't it?</p><p>Can you tell us what time you are seeing it? There are several other stars nearly as bright in that same area of the sky that are also possibilities, such as Betelgeuse and Rigel in the constellation Orion, as well as Capella.</p><p>If you know what the constellation Orion looks like (I've attached an image, with an Orionid meteor) can you tell is where it was in relation to this constellation and the time?<br /><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/6/8/067d14b6-9eb4-4292-a8be-e82680d0893d.Medium.jpg" alt="" /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[weeman]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>ok so i dont really know too much about the whole space thing ha, but anyways im in steamboat springs, colorado&nbsp; and about south south-east and theres a i think a star thats why brighter than any other and it looks like reds and yellows are "exploding" off the star. but its nothing to big i wouldn't think. can someone please help me out!? <br /> Posted by wutang137</DIV></p><p>Hello fellow Colorado-an! How are things in Steamboat? Getting cold up there? I'm just making a shout out from the front range (Littleton).&nbsp; </p><p>Anyways, I agree with Wayne. If it were a supernova in our region of the galaxy, it would be much, much brighter than any star that we see. For example, if Eta Carinae goes supernova, it could become the 3rd brightest object in the sky (preceded by the Sun and Moon), and Eta sits about 8,000 lightyears from Earth! So, if you were actually seeing a supernova, you'd know. <img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-wink.gif" border="0" alt="Wink" title="Wink" /> </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Hello fellow Colorado-an! How are things in Steamboat? Getting cold up there? I'm just making a shout out from the front range (Littleton).&nbsp; Anyways, I agree with Wayne. If it were a supernova in our region of the galaxy, it would be much, much brighter than any star that we see. For example, if Eta Carinae goes supernova, it could become the 3rd brightest object in the sky (preceded by the Sun and Moon), and Eta sits about 8,000 lightyears from Earth! So, if you were actually seeing a supernova, you'd know. <br />Posted by weeman</DIV><br /><br />We get lots of these questions as the brighter stars (including the 4 I mentioned, but a half dozen other as well) slide into the evening hours. Somewhere I even made a list of the top 10 brightest stars just for this purpose.</p><p>The good thing is, with the mighty Orion as a guidepost, and the time of the sighting, it's very easy to pin it down.</p><p>Bright stars low in the sky flash, blink off and on, and change colors. It's physics </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[3488]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'><font color="#ff0000">ok so i dont really know too much about the whole space thing ha, but anyways im in steamboat springs, colorado&nbsp; and about south south-east and theres a i think a star thats why brighter than any other and it looks like reds and yellows are "exploding" off the star. but its nothing to big i wouldn't think. can someone please help me out!? <br /> Posted by wutang137</font></DIV> </p><p><font size="2"><strong>Hi wutang137,</strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>Welcome to SDC & as Wayne says, this is the perfect place to ask.&nbsp;</strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>To me it sounds like Sirius, flashing in all of the colours of the rainbow (due to being low down & the light passing through at a shallow angle through the Earth's unsteady atmosphere). From here it happens all of the time when Sirius is visible, due to its low declination & my fairly high northerly latitude.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>Using Wayne's image of Orion, is this mysterious object on a line that m,ore or less continues downward from Orion's Belt? If so, it's Sirius.</strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>Andrew Brown.&nbsp;</strong></font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>To me it sounds like Sirius, flashing in all of the colours of the rainbow. From here it happens all of the time when Sirius is visible, due to its low declination & my fairly high northerly latitude.Using Wayne's image of Orion, is this mysterious object on a line that m,ore or less continues downward from Orion's Belt? If so, it's Sirius.Andrew Brown.&nbsp; <br />Posted by 3488</DIV><br /><br />It's one reason I ask the time. Rigel rises earlier, and I reall a few morning earlier in the year when steadiness was really ugly where it out on quite an impressive show. Very distracting for a meteor observer when it's right in your face.</p><p>With the programs we have andrew, knowing the time and position, we can clearly identify which star it is.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>