Astronomy: So You See a Bright Light?

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


Ive added this posting to my faves...cuz I need that software thank you soooo much for this

great post. when people look up and see stars they really take it for granted. There is so much out there because space never ends.

blah blah blah... was this thread really called for??
Its only common sense! did it take a new thread to teach it??

On christmas eve I was going to realtives foor some food and presents and all that usual christmas-crap

When I was almost there I noticed a, what I thought was an unusual bright light in the sky. It was still daylight so I guess it wasnt any stars, atleast not shining that bright. I took a look in Stellarium but I'm not experienced with those kind of things. I'm a Complete newbie so maybe for someone else it's obvious

The time should be 14:45 + - a couple of minutes and the date of course is 24/12 -2011. The coordinates are Latitude: N 59º 28' 38,64" Longitude: E 12º 41' 16,44" (I hope I did this right, if not here is the link www.koordinater.se... to a campsite about 500m from where I saw it)
As of what direction I was looking I'm not quite sure, but I think west. I guess this makes it harder maybe

Anyway, any ideas would be appreciated Thought of taking a picture at the time but it's pretty pointless in using the phonecamera for thos distant photos.

Thanks!

/Azmodan

Originally posted by Azmodan85
On christmas eve I was going to realtives foor some food and presents and all that usual christmas-crap

When I was almost there I noticed a, what I thought was an unusual bright light in the sky. It was still daylight so I guess it wasnt any stars, atleast not shining that bright. I took a look in Stellarium but I'm not experienced with those kind of things. I'm a Complete newbie so maybe for someone else it's obvious

The time should be 14:45 + - a couple of minutes and the date of course is 24/12 -2011. The coordinates are Latitude: N 59º 28' 38,64" Longitude: E 12º 41' 16,44" (I hope I did this right, if not here is the link www.koordinater.se... to a campsite about 500m from where I saw it)
As of what direction I was looking I'm not quite sure, but I think west. I guess this makes it harder maybe

Anyway, any ideas would be appreciated

Thought of taking a picture at the time but it's pretty pointless in using the phonecamera for thos distant photos.

Thanks!

/Azmodan

Problem solved, was told it was venus
Over and out!

I have a 180 reflective and i love to stare at Jupiter moons whizzing around.

Getting much better at making tracking adjustments now, finally after 2 years

Best thing ever is that app for your phone that you can simply point it at a star and find out what it is, or if its a planet etc. super helpful.

Here's a concise (and accurate) guide to identifying objects you see in the sky:

OK, guys, I'm in the Mid-Atlantic area, and I'm looking East. I see the constellation of Orion just coming up over the horizon.

Last night at about midnight, I see above and I think to the left of Orion a smudge of light about the size of half a dime held at arm's length, high up in the sky, but not at the zenith. Naked eye. Darn it we could not find the binoculars.

Candidates are:

1. The Pleiades - M45
2. Andromeda - reportedly too faint to be seen in a urban/rural area.

Any ideas?

a reply to: Maverick7

Answering my own post, Pleiades, just above Betelgeuse in Orion.

The second anniversary of the Columbia disaster passed almost unnoticed on February 1. Recent news reports said that the astronauts assigned to the first space shuttle mission since then were confident the mistakes and technical problems that led to that accident were in the past.

Disturbingly, the astronauts’ confidence in the revamped Shuttle is misplaced. Shuttle engineers caught the blame for a scientific failure. NASA scientists seem unwilling to admit they do NOT understand the cause of lightning and so were unfit to judge whether Columbia was struck a fatal blow by a super-bolt of lightning from space, now referred to as MEGALIGHTNING. Instead they have managed to convince themselves and the public that Columbia was mechanically damaged on takeoff. By doing so they risk the lives of astronauts in future. It is a high price to pay.

CONTINUE READING

Great thread, as someone getting back into astronomy after a break this was very useful.

Very good and all the sites you linked at the bottom are really good as we'll!

Neat! I'm glad there's a place to go should any anomalies pop out in the skies...

How about this guys? According to the image above, I think I witnessed a small bolide years ago.

It was evening sometime between 2001-2003, Los Angeles, CA. Looking westward in the sky, a group of us noticed a strange explosion of blue light. No noise, I don't think. It quickly disappeared, too, without a trace. Nothing mentioned in the news.

Hello, sorry to be a bother with this - I really did try to find out for myself, but I couldn't get the websites to take the 'locating' info the way I need to input it (they keep wanting to show me the sky in the evening and I'm trying to find out what I saw just after 1:00 a.m.)

So, if there's anyone who doesn't mind helping me:

I'm in Orlando, Florida, U.S.

Between 1:00 and 1:30 a.m. on November 4, 2016 - looking due East (maybe a bit South'ish')

A very bright planet, which I thought was Venus, but now think I was mistaken...

It was high'ish' on the horizon (above rooftop of the neighbor's house)

The odd thing, and it could have been a fluke of my eye sight, is that it sort of seemed to flash colors a bit - red, blue, and green...maybe it was the binoculars I was using?

Anyway, thanks in advance for the help!

a reply to: lostgirl

Good report! With the information you gave, it was easy to find out.

You saw Sirius, a.k.a. the "Dog Star" because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major. It is also the brightest star in the night sky as seen from Earth.

The colorful sparkling is caused by our atmosphere when bright stars are close(ish) to the horizon. If you think about how the sun looks when it's that low in the sky, you can understand that the starlight is coming through a lot of crud to get to your eyes. Because the distant stars are point-sources (unlike our sun), the light refracted as it comes through the atmosphere splits into its component colors. This is called "chromatic aberration", which can also be a side-effect of looking through lenses, such as your binoculars. You were probably getting a double-dose from the atmosphere and the binos.

I was particularly impressed that you thought it was a planet until you saw that sparkling. That was perceptive and correct. Though we can't see a nearby planet's disk with our naked eyes, its disk has a much, much larger angular size than the distant stars, and thus is much less susceptible to chromatic aberration. In simple terms, like you said, stars twinkle and planets usually do not.

For future reference, you might want to download Stellarium. It's free-ware that's easy to use and allows you to enter date & time and also location (including other planets).
www.stellarium.org...

Have fun and happy observing!

a reply to: Saint Exupery

Hello,

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your reply!!

Being a huge "Harry Potter" fan, I love knowing that the star which caught my attention was "Sirius"!

And thank you for the advice and link about "stellarium" -

- I had seen references to it when trying to research my 'sighting' that night, but was worried about downloading something 'new' to me - now I have your recommendation, I know it's safe and will download for future reference.

Thank you so much for your help!

a reply to: lostgirl

Glad to help!

Since you're a Harry Potter fan (I just finished re-reading the series), look above and to the right of Sirius and you will see the easily-identifiable constellation Orion the Hunter. You'll see the three stars of his belt, the bright blue star Rigel is at his knee, and orange Betelgeuse is his shoulder. Betelgeuse & Rigel are the first & second-brightest star in Orion. The third-brightest star in Orion is at his other shoulder, and its name is...
.
.
.
(Wait for it)
.
.
.
Bellatrix!



In the springtime you'll be able to see Regulus in Leo and Arcturus in Boötes.

Happy hunting!

How do you have your telescope mounted ALT/AZI or Polar mounted? Been wondering just what the differences are with tracking and slewing I just got a ETX 125 planning on getting into astrophotography.

a reply to: Gargoyle91

I have a Celestron C8 with a good equatorial mount with an old fashioned - but perfectly adequate - clock drive. I also own an ETX 90 and love it for its image quality and portability. Unfortunately, I don't have a good mount for it and have to make-do with a standard camera tripod.

You may want to re-post your question in the astrophotography thread:
Calling all Astrophotographers all skill levels. Post your work.

Hi ATS stargazers!
I don't know if there's an answer to this question but can't hurt to ask, right?

So, I'm in Central Florida and I was letting my dog out about 1:00 a.m. this morning and noticed a verrry bright star, fairly low on the horizon, almost due South, which I'm pretty sure was Canopus...

...the thing is, I'm out about that time most nights and have never noticed it before, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has heard anything about 'why' Canopus would be looking particularly bright now?

Thanks!