what's that bright star on the south west sky?

My Google sky map has gone a bit mad and I can’t work out if it’s Orion or Betelgeuse

Be afraid they’re coming….

edit2: just re-read the post – South west not south east. It’s probably venus (mercury’s very close by too and mars is the red “star” up and left).

Orion isn’t a star, it’s a constellation. if it’s orange-y it’s probably betelgeuse, if it’s white it could be sirius or rigel. I don’t think Jupiter’s up this early.

edit:

This should help. Sirius is just off the bottom left.

Venus?

If it’s near the bottom then it could be Uranus?

Download Stellarium, it’ll show everything up there in real time.

Venus is the brightest thing in the sky (apart from our Sun and Moon)

Planet. Innit.

Draw a line from the top right of the belt of Orion – Mintaka – down to the left (Alnitak) and keep going. If the line ends up at the brightest star, then it’s Sirius (alpha Canis Majoris)

Mercury and Venus are visible currently. Not sure offhand where. If your criteria is “brightest” it’s probably Venus.

Depends on the time, but around 11am – midnight Jupiter is very, very obvious somewhat to the left of Orion.

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From Sky Survey, Sirius is the bright blue-white star below and left of Orion, the other very bright star further left and up is Capella, so you have a choice of those two and Jupiter. Procyon is also another fairly bright star in the region.

All the visible planets are visible at the moment at various times. Venus and mercury are in the west just after nightfall and within about a degree of one another, Mars just up and left, Jupiter’s up most of the night in (I think) Cancer and Saturn’s visible just before dawn. Uranus is in the southwest too.