New Star?

Over the last week in the area were I live (western montana) I have noticed the emergence of a new star ( or something else?) in the night sky. It was right around a week ago on a saturday night when I was out side and happened to notice this. It sits in the eastern sky, not very high on the horizon and is extremely bright. It is brighter then everything with the exception of the moon. I am at a loss as to what this might be, as never having seen it until a week ago? Is this maybe an incoming comet or asterroid?

Most probably its a planet, or maybe a artificial satelite.

it could be a planet but i would have to see it to tell you what i thought

could you tell me what time it was approximately when you saw this? as for an incoming comet, i doubt that. it would have been spotted all over the world. as for an asteroid, that's a big no. asteroids are so small they barely reflect any sunlight at all. even the brightest asteroid only has a magnitude of 7.5.

Originally posted by ArMaP
Most probably its a planet, or maybe a artificial satelite.

No...I am not sure its a planet. Thats what I thought it could be at first. But I am not sure due to
1. its brightness thru out the night.
2. It shear size compared to the other stars in the sky.
3. The fact that it showed up last week and has been essentially in the same postion ever since. I work the night shift so I am generally getting home right around 1 am and up until last week I had never noticed this star and I would have due to the size and brightness of it.

Artificial satelite...maybe.
I will try to get pictures of it tonight and post them. Don't know how well that will work with a digital camera, but I will try.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid
could you tell me what time it was approximately when you saw this? as for an incoming comet, i doubt that. it would have been spotted all over the world. as for an asteroid, that's a big no. asteroids are so small they barely reflect any sunlight at all. even the brightest asteroid only has a magnitude of 7.5.

I was standing out on my deck with a friend and it was about 2:30 am MST. All I know is this thing is large and very bright.

[edit on 2-8-2004 by KILLCREEK]

Does it follow the same path as the Sun?

That's really strange. I live in Jersey and I noticed something very similar this past Saturday morning. I was driving home down the Parkway at around 3:30 AM EST when I noticed a very bright light in the eastern sky, probally around 35-40 degrees. It was the second brightest thing in the sky, the moon being the brightest. I was transfixed on the object, but I eventually wrote it off as being Venus, even though I never remember Venus being that bright.... Very strange indeed..........

The bright object in the early morning sky is Venus. It is much brighter than anything else(except the Moon of course). The time frame you posted for seems a little early for Venus though, so I am somewhat puzzled. Ill have to look up once the weather clears.

It's probably Sirius. It gets reported alot as a UFO. It rises in the SE early in the morning and it's the brightest star in the sky.

The "star" when I saw it was more NE than SE. As a matter of fact, I would say that it wasn't in any general area of being in the SE. Also, when and where I saw it, I would say it rose around 2:00 AM EST (maybe 2:30 AM).

[edit on 2-8-2004 by Woodside]

It could be Saturn. I've been noticing it recently in the east in the early hours of the morning. Both Saturn and Venus are in the eastern sky in the early hours of the day. I really do think you are seeing Saturn, it is rather bright.

And seeing as how planets are always changing positions over time, it wasn't always there in that spot, so that could be why it looks new to you. Like I said, I started noticing it recently myself.

Here's a handy tool you can use to figure out what you're seeing. www.mystarslive.com...

Im sure its Venus. It is amazingly bright and you cant miss it if you're out in the early pre-dawn hours.

It is venus. It should be in the NE sky in the early morning hours. It will also have a magnitude of -4.2 which is a fairly bright object compared to the other stars.

It has to be Venus. Now it has taken on its other role: The morning star. From Northwest Oregon I see the planet in the eastern sky around 5:00 am PST. Its probably 45 degrees above the horizon at that time.

montana
looking northeast, around 2:30 AM, would be the star Capella. it's basically a 0 magnitude star, and one of the brightest objects in the sky. not quite 40 degrees, but close. then, around 3 AM, due east Venus would be just rising.

new jersey
looking northest, around 2 AM, Capella woud be just rising.

Rev_Godslapper suggested that it could be the star sirius, but it doesn't rise until after the sun has risen as well.

If you want to know what that astroid was study the hopi legend of the twin blue and white fires in the sky.
Your welcome.

Am I the white man that is to save the hopis?

[edit on 3-8-2004 by SmillingBuddha]

If sun rises from that direction as sun I would say it's definitely Venus, it can be pretty bright.


Just look coordinates from map. (or if you don't have map I can tell coordfinates if you tell your location)
Then use Skymap here:
www.fourmilab.ch...

Sky Chart is completely free program so you might want to look it:
www.stargazing.net...

IT could be venus...The only thing I question is that this star or whatever it may be showed up little bit more then a week ago. I say showed up because I am up until at least 5 am most days and am in and out of the house all thru the night and I have never noticed it before then. At the time we noticed it we assumed that it was simply a plane coming into the airport since its in the relative direction of the glide path used. One thing I forgot to mention in the intial post is that when looking at this thing you can see a very faint red light at the bottom and top of it that seems to shimmer on and off.

One thing I forgot to mention in the intial post is that when looking at this thing you can see a very faint red light at the bottom and top of it that seems to shimmer on and off.

Sounds like redshift.. a natural phenomenon..
www.space.com...
Pictures would be good. Keep checking it out every night and see what happens. I've noticed "stars" that appeared for only a few days and disappeared but, for the most part, I've attributed them to planets.

If it would be "new star" or nova it would be on news, that's sure. (especially that bright)
But there isn't nothing about it on Spaceweather or on Space.com.

Could you tell in what constellation it is?

And shimmering in different colors is normal for bright stars near horizon.