# What was that star I saw tonight?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 28, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756 "2009-02-28T03:21:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ice1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ice1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ice1000)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756/1 "2009-02-28T03:21:31Z")

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I’m in the San Francisco Bay area. Today at sunset, I noticed a bight star near the moon, east of it.

Was that Venus or Mars or what?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756/2 "2009-02-28T03:24:12Z")

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Venus. It’s quite bright in the west just after sunset right now.  
That’s where the moon is too.

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756/3 "2009-02-28T03:27:51Z")

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> [@ice1000](#):
>
> I’m in the San Francisco Bay area. Today at sunset, I noticed a bight star near the moon, east of it.
> 
> Was that Venus or Mars or what?

Venus - See the Bad Astronomer’s article for more [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/27/venus-has-a-date-with-the-moon-tonight/](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/27/venus-has-a-date-with-the-moon-tonight/)

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-star-i-saw-tonight/487756/4 "2009-02-28T06:57:25Z")

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Astronomy: It’s always Venus.  
_House_: It’s never lupus.