Two bright stars in the Western sky, can you indentify?

Factual Questions
1

Hello All,
Taking Gunner the Great Dane™ for walk tonight I noticed two very bright stars in the Western Sky this evening. I am assuming they are planets, but the thing that is weird is that they are relatively very close together, separated horizontally in line with each other.

If you are in the Southern US, you will probably be able to see what I am seeing if you look to the West. The “stars” are very large compared to any other stars around them and very bright. The one to the North is brighter. Does anyone know what these are, stars or planets? If planets, what are they? My guess is Mars and Venus.

2

Venus and Jupiter. It’s all in the news. Check it out.

3

If it’s not on YouTube…

4

An article on Space.com about the conjunction (tonight is when the two planets appear closest to each other in the evening sky):

(Mars, BTW, is in the eastern sky in the evening these days.)

5

You should download Stellarium to identify celestial objects.

The lower right brighter one is Venus, the upper left is Jupiter.

6

Thanks for clearing that up!

7

Here you go; a neat, free, easy-to-use program telling you what’s what in the sky tonight, tomorrow, last month, or a hundred years from now: Stellarium.

(another reason why this series of tubes is amazing!)

8

Also check out Google Sky Map, if you have an Android phone. It’s Teh Awesum, as my cool friends say.

9

Or try this. They are just three really bright star-like objects in the nite sky (not counting the moon): Venus, Jupiter and Sirius. Sirius is always next to Orion. Venus is always somewhat near the horizon. Venus is by far the brightest.

You also get Mars in there (it’s briteness varies quite a bit), but it’s clearly reddish colored.

10

I’ve been enjoying looking at Venus & Jupiter this week, but it got me wondering…

Does Venus ever transit/eclipse Jupiter from our viewpoint?

Or any two planets for that matter.

11

You missed the real cool show a few weeks ago when the moon was closely aligned to both planets.

12

Yeah, that was especially striking while there was still a bit of daylight left… it definitely had a science-fictiony feel.

13

Yes, here’s a timetable
The next one is a bit too close to the Sun to see well and isn’t until 2065.

14

In other transit news, Venus will transit the Sun on June 6. That’s a pretty rare event, as this is the last transit until 2117.

15

Sic transit gloria Venus!

Sic transit gloria mons veneris?

:wink:

16

Seconded. You hold your Android device up to the sky and any direction you turn it will plot what you are seeing. It’s a live rendering of the sky. Tap any object to identify it.