I have been meaning to ask this for a while but keep forgetting. Our daughter has said that mummy could be the gold star, because its the only gold star in the sky. Ironically, I remember first seeing this the night of the funeral when she pointed it out to me.
Out of curiosity, what exactly is it? There seems to be mixed opinions on searching whether it is a planet or a star. What does STW say?
gold or slightly red?
never noticed a gold star, but slightly red is usually mars if I remember right. planets are brighter than stars, venus being the brightest thing in the sky. jupiter next, those three are usually the easiest things to pick out, they are quite a bit brighter than stars.
https://stellarium.org/ great app that for astronomy. next time you see it look it up.
If it has a strong colour then it is most likely a planet. An idea of time-of-day and rough direction/height would help identify it.
Riding through Rothiemurchus Forest tonight there is a very red "star" low to the South/SSW that is Mars. It's very bright so most likely that you are seeing.
It's Mars. Red really, but could be considered gold.
Currently in the morning Venus is visible low/mid in the east/south-east: its very bright at the moment just before sunrise.
In the evening Mars is visible in the south moving east (sets at about 11:30pm)) and and Saturn is visible low in the west, (t sets at about 6:30pm)
Probably Mars, which has been particularly glowing this year. Dont know how that is possible, clearer skies maybe?
Look south around 7pm, it is about 35-45 degrees up.
Download SkyView app, your daughter (and you) will love it.
golden colour body this time of year is most likely to be jupiter.
Was going to say, sky map on phone is quite interesting, uses GPS and gyroscope to show you what all the stars are depending where you point your phone..
I will try and get a location and time tonight. Sky view is installed too so will have a go with that.
must be Mars - that's also one of the few objects where colour is easily distinguishable with the naked eye
Jupiter is practically behind the Sun right now according to heavens-above
Venus is a daytime planet too right now
Sirius is a star that is bright enough to think might be a planet, but it's probably/definitely not that - it'd be in the wrong place anyway.
Glad it's not just me who thinks Mars has been particularly vibrant this year. When we were camping in Dorset it was positively bright red.
Whereabouts in the sky?
Mars is south at the moment, still reasonably bright just after sunset. Venus is low in the eastern sky and really bright but that's only visible pre-dawn.
Bright stars now are either Vega (western sky, definitely yellowish) or Alderberan (eastern sky). Google Sky Map is a brilliant app, that'll tell you everything you need to know.
International Space Station is visible at the end of this month too. Early evening most nights in the southern sky. Wave at the spacepeople!
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/
Does it get brighter and dimmer over a 5 or 6 day cycle? Could be Algol - high in the sky and visible all year. Sky View on your phone is where you're most likely to find the answer
golden colour body this time of year is most likely to be jupiter.
Jupiter isn't really visible currently, very close to the Sun's apparent position. I'm looking forward to it coming up again as it's a great one for the telescope, with the Galilean moons and stripes, I still haven't managed to spot the spot.
Mars is a kinda gold colour. Remember of course that the red is from a time when foxes, ginger hair etc. were red. It's definitely more orangey/gold*
*to the eye anyway, I'd be interested to see what the spectrum is like and how much of the apparent colour is due to the darkness.
Philjunior - Jupiter's Great Red Spot is fairly easy to...erm spot..in the telescope (10mm eyepiece in a 200mm Newtonian, so roughly x120 magnification in my scope) if you time it right, as it only takes an hour or two to traverse the front of the planet. My Jupiter highlight a year or so ago was catching the Red Spot (actually pale salmon colour in my scope), then watching as a tiny black dot appeared on the cloud surface as well. It was the shadow of a Galilean moon! That was awesome! Unfortunately, though, Jupiter's going to be really low on the horizon this coming year, so it'll be a while yet before I get to try for that again.
Gnusmas - I'd mirror what other's have said. The brightest star in the morning at the moment is Venus. I could almost have sworn you could see it's disc this morning it was that bright! In the evening, one of the first stars to pop out and pretty much the brightest in the sky at the moment, (other than Venus), is Mars. It's slowly working it's way up in the sky to the south (all planets follow roughly the same path as the sun), and hopefully by next month it'll be peeking over the roof of our house so I can get a peek at it with my scope!
Venus.
It was so bright the other morning, I was convinced it was the front lights of a plane coming directly towards me. After 15 mins of no movement and a check with a star app, I concluded it was Venus.
Is it hovering over a stable? Bloomin' Christmas comes earlier every year.
The brightest star in the morning at the moment is Venus. I could almost have sworn you could see it’s disc this morning
That'd have been some achievement that! 😆
Another good one to point out, I've not seen this is year actually, is that when sirrus is low in the sky it can actually flicker red and blue, quite strongly so!
Probably Mars, which has been particularly glowing this year. Dont know how that is possible, clearer skies maybe?
Pearlier this year Mars was particular close to us in its orbit, so it was bigger and brighter than usual, so its reddish colour was more obvious. There are a few stars that have a colour the naked eye can resolve, Betelgeuse, a red giant in Orion is one, Aldebaran in Taurus is an orange giant.
Typical that the past couple of nights have been overcast and cloudy here so I haven't been able to get any more info. But I will update when I do.
I clocked Sirius on the way home from the pub tonight, as per, low in the sky and flickering quite intensely red and blue. I guess it's not really an astronomical phenomenon, rather an atmospheric influence, but it's still quite cool.
It was pretty much the first thing I observed in the sky all by myself growing up. It's quite weird, almost seems like it flickers more when you are walking as opposed to standing watching it.
On another unrelated point, anyone remember Hale Bop in the 90s(peaked in 97 i think)? that was class.
guess it’s not really an astronomical phenomenon, rather an atmospheric influence,
This - the atmosphere is relatively thick looking towards the horizon, and Sirius never climbs very high in the Northern hemisphere, Canis Major and Orion are winter constellations here, and any warmth in the atmosphere causes something like heat-haze, so stars always seem to ‘twinkle’, whereas planets, which only shine by reflected light anyway, don’t really twinkle.
Sirius is pretty close to us, about 9 light-years away, it’s about twice the size of the sun, but 25 times more luminous and white rather than yellow. It’s a binary star with a white-dwarf companion. Canopus is bigger and brighter, but further away, so it’s the second brightest star that we can see, it’s 10 thousand times brighter than the sun, and 71 times bigger, but sadly it’s really only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.