Thanks to this website, we have eventually found out what was the bright object in the sky

martusha1985

My partner woke me up recently middle of the night and showed me this bright object like a bright star on the sky. We both got excited as we never seen something that bright on the sky (after sun and moon of course). We have been asking friends what it was and no one knew. Our friend bought telescope few days ago and today we had a first look. We couldnt get a nice clear view of the object so we went back home very dissapointed.
Luckly I found this website and found out that the massive bright object is a Venus.
:)
Anyone there possibly who was thinking about some sort of UFO? hahah or only two of us :) LOL

lindastar

Yes it is very impressive. I have all my friends out looking at it. Some people who don't know the solar system did not realise what is was, some thought it was the north star! I am just a amature but doing a little research helps. i really enjoyed Stargazing live.

Betelgeuse

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Yes it's the planet Venus, and if you look higher up from Venus and further to the left you'll see another planet, but not as bright as Venus...this is Jupiter. A good way to spot a planet is that it doesn't twinkle like a star would.

Watch over the coming weeks as each night Venus climbs higher, and Jupiter and Venus move closer together in the sky. On the 13th of March the two planets will be 2 degrees apart, which is just twice the width of your little finger when held out at arm's length http://astronomycentral.co.uk/measuring-degrees-in-the-night-sky

If you have binoculars (10x50's are good), try looking at Jupiter, you may see its moons.

Hazy

Jupiter, Venus and the Moon looked fantastic tonight. They were all aligned in a row and were shining really bright. Even the mrs who normally couldn't give rats arse about astrnomy was impressed and was asking me what stars they were. She then saw The Seven Sisters and asked about them thinking they were The Plough. So I thought I'd make use of her suddenly showing an interest and got my 25x70 bins out and told her to look through them. Wow! She says. And then wouldn't give me them back for about half an hour. The amount of times I've tried to get her out to look at the night sky. Looks like I've finally got her interested all thanks to Venus (and the Pleiades)

Betelgeuse

Lol, so you finally did get your binos back Hazy?

Everyone was going crazy on the social networks about the Moon/planets line up. It was getting lots of people's attention. Moon/Venus/Jupiter looked fantastic tonight. Raygil got an amazing photo with even the International Space Station flying through the scene. I'm sure he'll link to it on here

Saturday night sees the crescent Moon getting real close to Venus, so could be even better.

Hazy

Just clicked on the link to your Twitter profile, and saw the photo you mentioned and I see what mean, it's a really nice photo. I only just joied Twitter so I'm still getting used to it. Prof Brian Cox posted a tweet by @NASAVoyager2 saying how far away it is in light years, somthing like 13 hours 38 minuts 13 seconds away. I can't believe how long it'll take until it leaves the solar system.

RayGil

Thanks John - Here is my Flickr Link : http://www.flickr.com/photos/raygil/

Betelgeuse

Brilliant, love the deep blue of the sky.

karl

Some Fantastic shots Ray

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion