Hi, I’ve tried to figure this out on my own but I can’t seem to find the right answer.
I live near Birmingham, AL. and when I look up at the night sky I see what looks like a star, but brighter than any I remember seeing before. But I can’t match it up with the brightest star lists that I’ve found.
The star in question would be the lower right of an equilateral triangle with Betelgeuse on the lower left, and the Pleiades at the top.
Here is a link to a crude and not to scale picture of about where it is:
This has been driving me crazy for a few days now, can anyone help me out?
Jupiter is in that position at the moment, so I am guessing you’re looking at a planet, not a star This link might work now, will possibly change when Jupiter moves away. The ♃-symbol is Jupiter.
Ah, thank you for the information! This has been bugging me for a while, I thought it might have been a comet and that I must have missed hearing about it in the news.
Even with everyone in the thread agreeing that it’s Jupiter I’m still a wee bit skeptical. I thought Jupiter was not able to been seen with the naked eye?
And even if you could see it with the naked eye, that it would be so bright as to outshine all the other stars, even Sirius?
And it appears large, like you could almost resolve a disk with just your eyes. I mean it’s not quite that large but it really appears much larger than any other star in the sky. I’m going to try to snap a photo tonight on my really terrible 1.5 megapixel phone camera, to show you all what I’m seeing.
Yes Jupiter is brighter than the stars (see here) and very easily visible with the naked eye, it’s even possible to see its larger moons with bincoculars.
You might also find the charts at this site helpful.
Not only are the moonsvisible, but it’s a good way to convince yourself that you’re actually seeing Jupiter. Just take a decent set of binocs and look for a belt of three or four small dots near the bright object that you’re seeing. Because they orbit in the same plane, more or less, they’ll appear to be lined up in a very noticeable pattern.
God lives there according to Jehovah’s Witness belief:
*The constellation of the Pleiades is a small one compared with others which scientific instruments disclose to the wondering eyes of man. But the greatness in size of other stars or planets is small when compared to the Pleiades in importance, because the Pleiades is the place of the eternal throne of God.
J. F. Rutherford, Reconciliation, 1928, p. 14.*
Alcyone, then, as far as science has been able to perceive, would seem to be ‘the midnight throne’ in which the whole system of gravitation has its central seat, and from which the Almighty governs the universe.
It’s pretty widespread. For some reason I remember in primary school we had to tell the class about something we’d seen recently and I said my mum had pointed out the planets the previous night, and I had seen Mars and Jupiter.
The teacher scoffed at that and said something like “Nice imagination, I think Colophon has been out in his spaceship…” :dubious:
If they were planets on the same orbit (i.e. Jupiter didn’t drown out their light) they’d be visible (barely) to a person with good eyesight on a very dark night.
Speaking of Mars, I know it’s called the Red Planet, I know that people often describe its reddish light, but I’ve never been able to discern a reddish color when I see Mars. Does it vary or are my eyes bad?
Between Jupiter and Sirius. It can get pretty bright when it’s closest to Earth. I too have never noticed any obvious redness, but I guess I don’t live in an particularly good place for observing (hazy atmosphere, light pollution).
