What was that orange ball in the Southern sky last night

[margbrad]

My husband and I were sitting on a dock (Port Dover Canada) on Lake Erie with our binoculars the other night to watch the Meteors and there was a large orange ball of light just above the horizon looking south towards Erie, PA.
My husband and I were positvie it was Mars, but according to reports, Mars was in the West with 2 other planets.
My question is: Were we looking at Mars or another planet? It was about 11:30 at night so I'm wondering if Mars wanders over to the south after sunset.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I moved this to Ask the Astronomer. Welcome to Space.com!

Mars was not visible at 11:30 PM, well below the horizon.

Assuming your direction is correct, it would be Antares, the brightest star in Scorpio. Not very bright, but the only orange star in the true south direction. Scorpio is also an easy constellation to identify.

Hundreds of times brighter, low in the east was Jupiter, which could appear orangish so close to the horizon.

Much brighter than Antares is Arcturus, almost due west, which is a bit on the yellow side; close to the horizon it could look orange. To find it, follow the curve of the handle of the Big Dipper away from the bowl, that "arc" intersects Arcturus.

If you could learn some constellations, it would make it easier to ID what you saw

Wayne