Signs and Wonders

[Guest]

I was walking from my Mom's to my trailer after finishing the laundry and looked over the trees into the south-south western sky and saw something up there I could not explain right away. It is a point of light like a star or planet, but much, much brighter. Maybe even brighter than the moon. I think it may be that comet I heard about on the news. It is amazing, I've never seen anything like it. If you're in the central U.S., go have a look for yourself. I took pictures, but they are blurry. I am gonna set up a tripod later.

[PakledHostage]

It was probably Venus. Venus is about 1/3 of the way between the Sun and Moon today. It is very bright, and located in the south western sky when viewed from North America.

Edit: Here's a screenshot from my phone's "Mobile Observatory" app

Edited December 11, 2013 by PakledHostage

[Guest]

Yeah, comet Ison looks to be dead, according to google news. I've never noticed Venus being that bright before. It's just about below the horizon now. I guess viewing conditions were just right today, after that big winter storm we just had. Must have cleared the sky out good enough to get a really good view of Venus.

[lajoswinkler]

Yes, it's Venus and it's brightness is typical.

Few hours after sunset you can see Jupiter on the opposite part of the sky. It's not so bright but it outshines all the stars. Six hours later there's Mars, too.

Right before sunrise there's Saturn.

[Requiem762]

I've been into space stuff for a long time and just recently started sky watching and every time I see Venus it's amazing.

[Tiberion]

Venus is called the Evening Star for a reason

[Nibb31]

If you have an Android smartphone, I strongly suggest Sky Maps: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.stardroid

[Guest]

I've got Stellarium installed on my pc. It's pretty cool and seems to work just fine (check it out here). I could have just used that to verify what I was seeing, but in my excitement over the possibility that there was something new up there, I posted here so everyone else here could go look too. Turns out, I shoulda had a V8.