FAO Wendilla or a Hamateur Astronomer

DTCwordfan | 19:45 Wed 11th Jan 2012 | Science

20 Answers

Hi Wendilla or whoever can answer this.

What is in the night-sky tonight, roughly WSW to SSW, pretty static, enormously bright, almost as if it was a double light with a hint of red on the lower side?

Beautifully clear down here and it's the brightest planet I have ever seen.....there's one other more central/overhead...slightly west.

(Cornwall being the location here).

Thanks in advance.....

Moon orbit and rotation speed. (For a boffin)

The moon

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stokemaveric

mars????

boxtops

Looks like Venus - we can see it here too - it it wasn't still, i'd think it was the ISS! http://www.jodrellban...k/astronomy/nightsky/

seadogg

www.stellarium.org/ is a good site for finding out what the night sky is showing in your locality. There are other programmes which are as good. The heavens are obscured here.

DTCwordfan

Question Author

I thought it was the ISS to start with - here it's even brighter than that though.

DTCwordfan

Question Author

well there we are, Venus and Neptune are making love tonight....

sounds a bit Boticelli fishy to me.

DTCwordfan

Question Author

thanks all of you.

The mating lasts three nights - wonder if planets can have dwarf offspring.

wendilla

There are no sightings of the ISS at the moment . The prominent planet at the moment is Jupiter.

wendilla

http://www.schoolsobs...uk/astro/esm/nightsky

boxtops

At that angle, what I saw is definitely Venus.

wendilla

Jupiter (magnitude –2.5, at the Aries-Pisces border) shines highest in the south at dusk, moves lower toward the southwest as evening advances, and sets in the west around 1 a.m. In a telescope Jupiter appears 42 arcseconds wide; see our observing guide

DTCwordfan

Question Author

To the naked eye, would it look like as if it was split in two, with a hint of red, Wendilla? I well know eyes can deceive, like with perspective at times.

How do you explain seadogg's "interpretation"?

Thanks....

seadogg

Had a look. Unless it is ISS it must be Jupiter. Put your binocs on it and if you can see 4 faint objects in a line near it you have the planet and visible satellites.

DTCwordfan

Question Author

ta seadogg - that explains the split.....it's a remarkable sighting - almost took the car off the road going into Truro ninety minutes ago!

seadogg

What is really striking is making a bivouac in the moors on a clear night, when the milky way lives up to its name and there are so many stars out there it feels as if you are lying under a protective roof.

boxtops

Wow then, I stand corrected!

mibn2cweus

Venus, SW at sunset, appears as a crescent through a modest telescope.

Jupiter, to the south, is the one with the moons.

sunny-dave

Wow - got the Canon 18x50 stabilised bins on it - amazing - can see Jupiter and a line of three of the moons :))))

mibn2cweus

Jupiter and Venus are visibly approaching each other and will be within a few degrees of each other by mid March. This is, of course, an illusion of perspective since Venus is always closer to the Sun than the Earth and Jupiter is about five times further from the Sun than the Earth.

Venus will remain, as always, the brighter of the two.

DTCwordfan

Question Author

not much down here tonight or last night owing to the fuzzy stuff over us....

thanks all.....