What I could have seen...need help from star gazers

Well let me start off by saying I dont think I saw a UFO but I cant figure out what I did see. I live in the Northern Midwest and last night I woke up in the middle of the night and just happened to look out my window and saw one lone bright object in the sky. The window faces just south of due west when I checked it with a compass it was something like 260 SW. It was a cloudy night and I live in a city so u dont see the stars but there was this lone extremely bright thing in the sky and the moon and that was it. It was about 10 degress below the moon if I had to guess and farther west. It was so bright that it actually did show up on my camera phone but when I zomed in it was just an intense white light the size of a pin head. It didnt move for over an hour. Any Ideas what something like that could be? Planet? Really bright star?

Jupiter is really bright in the sky recently. Very bright.

reply to post by onfire49


You either saw vietnamese swamp lanterns or Jupiter. Jupiter is in oposition & has lost a cloud band making it brighter nowadays.

Probably Jupiter...

earthsky.org...

Well thanks for all the replies....I did a little research but wasnt sure what it could be wanted some confirmation. Guess I never really bother to look up at the sky much....much less that early in the morning haha

reply to post by onfire49



What you were looking at was Jupiter. It has been extremely bright for a past few days. If you have decent binoculars (e.g. 10X50), you can actually see the moons of Jupiter as well. You might even be able to see them if you have a digital camera or a camcorder with high optical zoom (e.g. 10X) and a tripod to keep it steady.

Absolutely....JUPITER....if you get a telescope or even a good pair of binoculars....you can easily see a few of Jupiters main and largest moons....4 of them are big moons....although I have lost count on how many moons Jupiter now has.....as MANY have been discovered. Split Infinity