Venus?

[UKDan89]

I was just wondering is this is Venus? I'm in the south of England, I woke up at 05:00 and looked out my window to find no stars but this magnificent glowing dot above the moon, I immediately thought 'Venus!' So can someone who knows more about planet positions help me out

[Accelerando]

If there are no other stars, then that's probably Venus. It could also be Jupiter, which is the second brightest light in the night sky, to my knowledge.

I'm not an expert on planet positions, though.

[UKDan89]

I went onto a stargazing/planetgazing information sight and Jupiter is not due to appear in England until 30th September and when it is it will be in the south whereas this was in the east, Venus was due out this morning too - http://www.wolvas.org.uk/society/archive/Events%20Planets/This%20Months%20Planets%20.htm

Thanks for the help

[maltesh]

Definitely Venus.

Stellarium is a great free program for answering the "What is that bright object?" question.

[UKDan89]

Ah I just found a program that tells you the planetary positions, it IS Venus!

Oh someone just sent me a picture of it too lol

[UKDan89]

Thank you so much for your help maltesh, this is the first time I've identified a planet so I'm very excited, again thank you both

[bsalis]

Yeah, you can see Venus in the Evening.

Google Skymaps is a neat app for these things too.

http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/

[Tommygun]

I have a follow up question.

How do you get Stellarium to make a screen capture?

When I try, I just get the desk top image underneath it.

[UKDan89]

I just use print screen lol

[Tommygun]

Just figured it out, you can't be in full screen mode.

You have to be in windowed mode.

[Millst0ne MK II]

Yeah, you can see Venus in the Evening.

Google Skymaps is a neat app for these things too.

http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/

I see what you did there.....

[thristydevil]

I don't think so that It was Venus because in 2003 or 2004 when mars came near to earth

it can be visible by binoculars and it is the nearest planet to earth while Venus is far away from earth.

[Tauge]

General rule of thumb. If it's a few hours before sunrise or a few hours after sunset, is east or west (respectively), and is bright then there is a very good chance it is Venus.

[Capt'n Skunky]

I don't think so that It was Venus because in 2003 or 2004 when mars came near to earth

it can be visible by binoculars and it is the nearest planet to earth while Venus is far away from earth.

Both Mars and Venus are easily visible to the naked eye. Jupiter as well. They are very easy to spot in the sky, especially Venus as it usually will appear before stars do. Remember, Venus is closer to the Sun than Mars and therefore can reflect much more light.

Cheers!

Capt'n Skunky

KSP Community Manager

[Nikolai]

I don't think so that It was Venus because in 2003 or 2004 when mars came near to earth

it can be visible by binoculars and it is the nearest planet to earth while Venus is far away from earth.

Venus gets closer to Earth than Mars ever does.

EDIT: In fact, while I type this, according to Stellarium, Venus is 0.9315 AU from Earth and receding, while Mars is 1.865 AU from Earth and receding (more than twice the distance).

Edited September 13, 2012 by Nikolai

[jenskerman]

I think it's generally known that Venus is the morning star... But you can see it in the evening, too.

[Nikolai]

Remember' date=' Venus is closer to the Sun than Mars and therefore can reflect much more light.[/quote']

Absolutely! It's also intrinsically much more reflective (clouds are really good at reflecting visible light, it turns out -- much better than rock, anyway) and bigger. All these things conspire to make it the third-brightest object in Earth's sky.

Something to note, though people may figure it out in their own way when 0.17 comes out: inferior planets -- that is, planets that orbit the sun inside the orbit of the planet you happen to be on -- are morning/evening "stars" on the planet you happen to stand on, simply by dint of geometry; they're never separated by a very large angle from the sun, and so they seem to rise and set right around the same time the sun does. Earth, for example, is a morning/evening "star" on Mars. (And Kerbin is a morning/evening star as seen from Jool and its moons.)

[UKDan89]

Tonight I will be looking out for Jupiter, will hopefully get a shot of it

[UKDan89]

Got the shot of Jupiter it's the brightest one in the middle in between Alnath and Aldebaran

[Excalibur]

A few years ago I borrowed a 6-inch reflector off of one of my father's friends. Even in the light-pollution infested north of England I could see the four Gallilean moons and some of the cloud bands. I could have sworn I saw the Great Red Spot too but wasn't 100% sure on that one. I'll never forget it, looking at an object so vast yet so far away.

[Tommygun]

A few years ago I borrowed a 6-inch reflector off of one of my father's friends. Even in the light-pollution infested north of England I could see the four Gallilean moons and some of the cloud bands. I could have sworn I saw the Great Red Spot too but wasn't 100% sure on that one. I'll never forget it, looking at an object so vast yet so far away.

Jupiter's moons are very impressive the first time you see them in a telescope.

I had a 6-inch reflector too, but was way out into the country and very dark. I could see color bands, but wasn't sure about the Red Spot ether.

[Excalibur]

The scope I borrowed had an auto-tracking gimbal to account for the Earth's rotation. It also had a go-to function that would point it at the point of interest at will. Only thing was it required precise GPS co-ordinates which I didn't have access to. Alas even with rough lat/long I'd gleaned from map data it wasn't precise enough to work. Manually pointing it took a ton of patience and on the highest magnification it would slide out of view within a minute or so.

May have to see if he's still got it...

[Tommygun]

Yes, I had an old manual one and it was a pain, but worth it. I could see Saturn too, but not it's ring, possibly because it slid out of view so quickly?

[Nikolai]

I could see Saturn too,

I still remember the first time I saw Saturn in a telescope. Realizing that I was seeing something hanging right there, magically suspended in all that inky black, a tiny little yellow pea surrounded by a ring... it all seemed so delicate that I couldn't speak loudly. I had to whisper. It was amazing to think that I was looking at this entire world, the way it appeared right then, not just some photograph already seen by a million eyes and that would be seen by a million more. I wasn't just looking at this other planet; I was witnessing something.

but not it's ring, possibly because it slid out of view so quickly?

It could be that you were also close to a time when we see Saturn's ring edge-on. (When Galileo saw that for the first time, it drove him nuts. "Has Saturn devoured his children?" He didn't realize it was a separate ring -- I mean, humanity had never seen such a thing. He thought it was two things on the sides of Saturn somehow.)

You're also right that things slide out of view surprisingly quickly in a 'scope. Nothing quite like that to convince you that the Earth is rotating.

[UKDan89]

I will be buying myself a telescope soon and can hopefully get some decent pictures