While out having a smoke last night around 2 a.m. I noticed that the stars were unusually bright. There weren’t more stars visible than normal but the ones that were visible appeared brighter. I’m located just outside of Detroit. I also noticed 3 stars that I never saw before. I’ll admit I’m not a stargazer at all. Anybody know if these 3 stars are part of a constallation? Here’s where they were…
If I stood facing north and looked straight up, I saw the little dipper. Now if I looked ‘east’ about halfway to earth I saw 3 bright stars that formed almost a perfect vertical line. Any signifigance?
I don’t know the movements of the cosmos well enough to be sure that you weren’t seeing a conjunction of planets, but if they were stars, you may have been looking at the famous belt of the Orion nebula. I think it could appear vertical at certain times of the night.
If your sky holds few enough stars that you can count them, you really gotta get a good 50-100 miles away from the city some time. That’ll turn you into a stargazer.
Saltire probably has it, but it’s also possible that at that time and that latitude, Jupiter and Saturn were just rising, with another bright star in the same area. If noone else can confirm, I’ll run my “Starry Night” when I get home and check it out for the time, date and place.
Yeah, it was probably Orion. Also, most likely that wasn’t the little dipper you saw, but Pleiades (if you don’t star gaze much, it’s unlikely you’d be able to casually pick out the little dipper).
If they are bright stars, then they probably part of some constallation. Jupiter and Saturn are currently in the east around 10 to midnight but would be higher in the sky around 2 am, I think.
Like Saltire said, they could have been the 3 belt stars of the constellation Orion (not nebula), which can appear nearly verticle when near the horizon…plus they’re about evenly spaced and about the same brightness (which could have drawn your attention). Plus, Orion (a winter constallation) is just beginning to rise above the eastern horizon late at night.
true, (the Little Dipper can be hard to see) plus the Little Dipper would not be “straight up” from Detroit. (but you would see it facing north…so that much is right)
Sky and Telescope indicates that Jupiter and Saturn rise late, and a few degrees below them is Aldebaran. I had noticed this formation earlier but, because I don’t get out into the country much (I live in Ann Arbor, somewhere near you, Oblong :)) I couldn’t be certain it was Aldebaran. I was certain I was looking at Jupiter, though.
Five to one that Saturn, Jupiter, and Aldebaran, top to bottom, were what you were looking at. Was the middle one brightest and the bottom one orange?
Give me location (lat, lon), date, time, elevation and azimuth and I can tell you exactly what you were seeing. Or give me location, date, time and object and I’ll give you azimuth and elevation.
BTW, Both azimuth and elevation are very difficult to estimate. 15 degrees elevation from the horizon and 15 degrees from the zenith (75 from the horizon) ear estimated very differently.
You can get yourself a startfinder for very little money which will allow you to find out what you are seeing veery easily. It is just a circle with a clear circle over it which you rotate to match time and date.
From the Sky & Telescope website… http://www.skypub.com/sights/sights.shtml
JUPITER and SATURN (magnitudes -2.6 and -0.1, respectively) rise by about 10 p.m. daylight saving time. They shine prominently in the east by 11 or midnight. Jupiter is the brighter one; Saturn is to its upper right. They appear 10 degrees apart, in Taurus. Above them is the Pleiades cluster, and just below them sparkles orange Aldebaran. By dawn the whole group stands very high in the southwest.
If it wasn’t at 2 a.m., I’d take a look myself tonight.
I checked “Starry Night” for the time, date and location, and it was definitely Orion’s belt. Jupiter and Saturn were nearly 30 degrees closer to the zenith, and Aldebaran formed a triangle with them, not a straight line.
Just wanted to express my embarassment at the ‘nebula’ thing. I know it’s a constellation, the nebula is just a smudge on the Hunter’s dagger. Unfortunately, my typing fingers aren’t so well educated, nor can my eyes manage a simple proofread.
Hey, as long as y’all are helping identify stars and stuff, what’s that bright one right over there – see, there? No, no, not that one, the other one, right over the garage roof?
Well I’m totally confused now. After looking at Orion on the web, I can see where what I thought was the little dipper all my life was his belt. I hopethat is what you are saying. The 3 ‘stars’ that I saw in a vertical line were just that, not a triangle. One of them may have been off a little bit. Those objects were about 55-60 degrees from looking straight up due east.
I know these aren’t the proper terms but I’m not a stargazer. When I move to AZ then I will be.
