Strange star in the sky

reply to post by edgecrusher2199


Here is a link for ya

www.earthsky.org...

Keep watch, on the 27th you will see the new crescent moon and Venus together.

Another interesting thing about this moon with Venus is it is the last pairing of the moon and Venus until Venus reappears in 2010. We have until the end of March to see her, then she will not be visible to us.

Ive been watching Venus for about 6 months, she actually conjuncted many times in the past 6 months so this is why I am so sure it is what it is. She has been on the predicted path of Venus and right in line with all predictions of what was going to be her path. She is following in accord perfectly. The last time Venus was this bright, she was in the opposite direction in the sky. I have seen her this bright before....but it is still captivating for those who have not.

Follow the path of Venus predicted and watch her follow it perfectly. You have about a month left to observe her.

Hope that helps....
LV

The star is Sirius. It always flashes these crazy colours. I remember being puzzled by it before as well.

reply to post by LeoVirgo


Absolutely correct edge. And again I might point out that because planets only reflect light (Venus being shrouded in clouds makes a good reflector) the apparent brightness is due to it's closer proximity to Earth due to it's orbital position at this time.

reply to post by LeoVirgo


Venus will "reappear" before dawn beginning in early April...2009. That's what she does. She's a morning "star" for a while, then when she's on the other side of the sun from our point of view, she becomes an evening "star. Like she is now.

reply to post by Phage


AHHH, I see, thanks for that clarification Phage....I knew it said it was disappearing from the night sky but I wasnt sure if it was totally leaving the sky (from our perspective). So that is what is going to happen here soon....we will be able to view it in the night sky, then suddenly it will be a morning star and not the evening star.

Makes more sense now

LV

reply to post by Sergeant Stiletto

I am in Seattle, each evening for the past week I have seen a very large bright orb (star? planet?) in the western sky. So bright in fact that it glows brightly along with the sun as it is setting. Truly amazing!

We have really enjoyed seeing Venus the past month or two from our front yard in Southeast Texas. But on Feb. 21(Sat) , we saw aith super large extremely bright yellowish , with a red orange tint on one end.
It was stationary for around 20 minutes and then began to drift up and down . We saw it for about 3 hours. This thing was not high in the sky like we see Venus. It sat right over our neighbors rooftop to the west .
On Feb. 22 , we saw a bright whitel light that looked like Venus.
We do not know what we saw on Feb. 21.

I was outside the other night and noticed this bright light. I went out back to check it out. It was directly west over the river and it was after sunset, anywhere from 6pm to 7 maybe 8pm at the time. I had just gone to the store and the sun was going down so I knew it was after that. Anyways it was bright than any other star in the sky. I went inside and grabbed binoculars. It looked really bright and the colors were different than the other stars. I went inside and read online that it was Venus. Apparently it is supposed to be really bright right now and it was supposed to be at it's brightest on Valentines Day or the next, I dont remember. I havent thought of it as anything else but Venus. It is cool to look at, wish I had a telescope.

I hate to burst all your bubbles, but this star is NOT new. I am referring to the brilliant one people have described as a police cruiser with its lights on (flashing blue/red/green, etc). I live in Houston, TX. I first noticed this star back in 1986 - no, that's not a typo 1-9-8-6. My girlfirend and I picked it out as "ours." I've noticed it periodically since then and recently I decided to try and figure out what the hell it is.

If it were a planet then surely it would no longer be visable after being in our skies for almost a year now, right?
It has been in our skies since April 2008, and is getting brighter.

I live in Northern Fl. for the last few weeks coming home between 6pm and 8 pm I am drawn to the brightest star I have ever seen.It calls me to look at it.It is amazing.It is in the western sky and not like anything I have ever seen.It is gone now March 3rd and I have searched the net to find out what it was.It was not Venus,I am sure.What it was,I do not know?????

It is a planet and it is Venus.

Keep watching...you will soon see it become a morning star and not be in our night sky (as Phage nicely pointed out).

It is getting ready to transverse, I guess you could say...from a night star to a morning star.

Once this happens, there will be no doubt it was and is Venus.

She has had a busy yr.

So lets all keep watch and watch this transverse from a night star to a morning star.

I posted a link earlier in this thread but I really didnt understand what it was saying about the ''disappearing of Venus' in our night sky. I think I now get what is happening.

I was still able to see her tonight, shining bright as ever. She quickly set though below the horizon.

www.earthsky.org...

www.earthsky.org...

edit to add the link

[edit on 2-3-2009 by LeoVirgo]

Looks like March 24-25 will be the time to watch for the evening star become a morning star.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by LeoVirgo]

reply to post by foremanator


Well after reading everything, looking at Youtube, going outside, it just looks like Venus to me :O the evening star, its always been bright and i just sat and watched it tonight for awhile.

its really bright, but if its closer to us this year then more light reflecting.

now 2012..tell me more about that

I thought Niburu wasn't gonna be able to be seen with the naked eye till later this year or early 2010? ( Assuming it was even real? ). Hmm, my mother saw this bright star, but I haven't seen it yet. Damn me for never looking at the sky at night.

Every 15 months it becomes this bright, it has its own cycles.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Catch Venus before it disappears
A once-every-eight-years cycle of this luminary is about to end

By Joe Rao
updated 10:05 p.m. ET, Sat., March. 7, 2009

In about three weeks, we will lose a brilliant luminary that has been so much a part of our evening sky since the end of last summer.

The planet Venus, which shone so high and bright in the western sky during February, is now moving steadily lower with each passing night; it has begun its plunge down toward the sunset, soon to make its most dramatic exit from the evening sky since 2001.

Currently Venus is setting just under three hours after the sun in a dark sky. You can't miss it. Simply go out just after sunset and look West.


By March 12, Venus will follow the sun by only about two hours and on March 21 by just an hour. And by March 25 it will lie only 9 degrees to the upper-right of the setting sun (your clenched fist measures roughly 10 degrees at arm's length) and follows it down by only about a half an hour.

The reason for Venus' rapid fall toward the sun is that the planet will pass inferior conjunction on March 27. That means Venus, which orbits the sun well inside Earth's orbit, will be between us and the sun. The setup causes Venus to go through phases, much like our moon.

For several weeks before and after March 27, Venus is relatively close to Earth, and its thin, backlighted crescent becomes large enough to resolve in steadily-held 7-power binoculars. The planet's narrowing crescent is best seen right around sunset or in bright twilight when a bright sky helps to reduce the planet's brilliant glare.

As it swings close to Earth in the coming weeks it will grow to nearly 1/30 of the apparent diameter of the Moon - a waning crescent visible with telescopes, binoculars, and just possibly even with the naked eye.

But the crescent is also thinning, so its magnitude fades during the month from -4.6 to -4.0. In daylight, with a telescope and really clear, steady air, you might even observe the cusps of the crescent extending all the way around to form a ring. This effect results from sunlight diffused and scattered through Venus' upper atmosphere.

On March 6, the disk of Venus was 14 percent illuminated, but by March 21 the planet will have grown 16 percent larger while its phase will have thinned to a striking 2 percent. By March 25, look for it to twinkle in the twilight because its crescent is so thin! A telescope will reveal it to be a hairline sickle by then, only 1 percent sunlit.

Venus goes through an eight-year cycle of apparitions, meaning its behavior this year closely duplicates that in 2001, 1993, 1985, and on back.

And only once per cycle do we in the Northern Hemisphere get a brief window of opportunity to glimpse Venus both at dusk and dawn on the same day.

This happens because at this particular apparition Venus passes widely north of the sun at conjunction, so observers at mid-northern latitudes can pick it up as a morning object before it disappears from the evening sky.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.
c 2009 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

South Florida 10:20pm eastern
I'm facing west, rough estimate about 30-35 degree from the horizon
flashing, color changing star in the southern skies.

so which star is there right now? Didn't Venus set already here???

btw Orion is just past being directly overhead from my location.

I got a video of that star / planet on me camera but until i get a bluetooth dongle for my laptop i cant upload flashes red green yellow and very large there were other stars out but at full zoom on the phone camera it would not pick them out but this one EASY, so what is it? Venus? don't have a compass so cant say what direction it's in, oh i court a GREAT sight of that crescent moon it was crazy looking i could not focus my eye's on it because of the way it looked almost like two crescent moons overlapping weird.

reply to post by stealthyaroura



Find the big dipper and you can find what direction you are looking at for the most part. The end of the ladle of the big dipper points to the North Star...so that area of the big dipper is your general North area. The big dipper sits to the East of the North Star, for the most part right now. It will slowly go counterclockwise around the North Star throughout the year. Also of course you can imagine where your sun rises and sets too, just to have a general idea.

It sounds like a few people might be seeing something different then Venus...being how late they have said they are viewing it.

Just thoughts, always
LV