Bright Star in the South West Tonight ...

[Spymaster]

... anyone know what it is?

 

[Fez909]

 

[danny la rouge]

... anyone know what it is?

Baby Jesus. Know where we can score some myrrh?

 

[BigTom]

... anyone know what it is?

You are drunk, lying in a gutter, looking at a streetlight.

 

[danny la rouge]

You are drunk, lying in a gutter, looking at a streetlight.

You are the anti-Oscar Wilde.

 

[bi0boy]

venus. diagionally up to the left of it should be mars, which is a red colour.

 

[bi0boy]

if it's actually a star not a planet you're talking about it will be fomalhaut which is to the left of venus and much closer to the horizon rn.

 

[Bernie Gunther]

Stellarium

Is a handy tool for answering such questions.

 

[danny la rouge]

bi0boy: quick, edit! (Spymaster still hasn't heard of Night Sky so we can tell him anything!)

 

[Orang Utan]

Venus is what I've been spying in the sky on recent nights.
If it doesn't twinkle, it's not a star, so will be a satellite or a planet

 

[Spymaster]

venus. diagionally up to the left of it should be mars, which is a red colour.

Ta

 

[danny la rouge]

Ta

You should have known that from the cover of your favourite album.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

It's a mountain-sized giant asteroid heading straight towards you, and will probably result in a global mass extinction event.

 

[2hats]

The answer to what is that bright 'star' in the SW after sunset (or in the SE before sunrise) is, nine times out of ten, Venus. A give away is the general lack of scintillation (twinkling) due to it (indeed all the naked eye visible planets) being extended and not point sources. Another test is: is it lying in the plane of the ecliptic - if the Moon is visible does the 'suspect planet' lie on an arc running through the Moon and the Sun (judge the position of the Sun from the scattered post-sunset/pre-dawn light) and/or joining the other 'suspect planets' that are visible (assuming you can spot/judge which those are).

 

[JTG]

Yeah, Venus. Brightest thing in the night sky other than the moon

If you're ever standing there thinking 'fuck me, that's really bright!' then it's always Venus

 

[2hats]

Yeah, Venus. Brightest thing in the night sky other than the moon

Or the ISS, or an Iridium flare, or many fireball meteors, or Jupiter or Mars when Venus has set (though to be fair Jupiter and Mars at their brightest can get to within a magnitude of that of Venus when it is at it's least bright: Venus can be as low as -3.8 whilst Jupiter and Mars can get as high as -2.9).

 

[JimW]

I'm of course another bright star in the south west but you might not see me from London.

 

[Voley]

We saw this last night too. Mars looked distinctly red, too. Particularly bright clear night down here at Lands End. Milky Way, the lot. Beautiful.

 

[JTG]

I'm of course another bright star in the south west but you might not see me from London.

So is Matty Taylor but you can't even see him from Nailsworth

 

[bi0boy]

Yeah, Venus. Brightest thing in the night sky other than the moon

If you're ever standing there thinking 'fuck me, that's really bright!' then it's always Venus

I did this last night but Venus had already set and it was actually a Ryanair flight coming into Stansted.

 

[JTG]

I did this last night but Venus had already set and it was actually a Ryanair flight coming into Stansted.

Yeah, obviously you have to distinguish between objects that are relatively motionless to the naked eye and jet aircraft

 

[JimW]

So is Matty Taylor but you can't even see him from Nailsworth

Used to get a lovely view but occluded by poor management in the end.

 

[2hats]

Yeah, obviously you have to distinguish between objects that are relatively motionless to the naked eye and jet aircraft

Planets don't tend to have colour coded navigation lights and anti-collision strobes, which helps when not viewing directly back along the traffic pattern within a few miles of an airfield.

 

[bi0boy]

Planets don't tend to have colour coded navigation lights and anti-collision strobes, which helps when not viewing directly back along the traffic pattern within a few miles of an airfield.

it was coming right at me with it's landing lights on, no apparent motion in the 15 seconds i stared at it