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Nite sky

 

buck
 buck
(@buck)
Advanced Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 223
September 23, 2010 8:30 am  

Looking at moon tonight, to the east/ southeast, is that a star or a planet? I know where Venus is located but wondered about this one!


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specialk
(@specialk)
Trusted Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 579
September 23, 2010 11:32 am  

If you're asking about the bright light to the lower left of the (Harvest) moon you're probably looking at Jupiter. Uranus was just above Jupiter but sometimes gets lost in Jupiter's brilliance. Sometimes those two planets are so close in our view they appear to be one large bright planet. Larger and brighter than Venus. It's an awesome sight.


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rks
 rks
(@rks)
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Joined: 13 years ago
Posts: 396
September 23, 2010 9:53 pm  

My chart shows Jupiter...I'll check when the sun sets. Uranus is not visible to the naked eye.


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STXBob
(@STXBob)
Trusted Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 2138
September 24, 2010 2:24 am  

Just after sunset, the sun is in the western sky and this object is in the eastern sky. If this object were Venus, then the alignment would be:
Sun - Earth - Venus
But Venus is closer to the sun than the Earth is to the sun. Therefore, it's not Venus.
And it's not Mars because Mars is red.
So Jupiter makes sense.


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