CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

As I was putting my dog outside tonight, I noticed a particular star and it's bugging me that I don't know what it is. It was pretty low in the north/northeast sky (I could just see it over my neighbor's rooftop) and was exceptionally bright and twinkly. From what I recall of the little astronomy I studied, I don't know of any really bright star that would be in that location, or is this a planet or something that would move around more like that? (That's my suspicion, since I've never noticed it before.) I think it's located almost directly under Orion's Belt, unless what I thought was Orion's Belt wasn't Orion's Belt, it did seem a bit dim tonight, and it's between that and the horizon. I live in the eastern part of North Carolina, if that'll help figure this out (well, I live there whether or not it helps...lol).

Anyone know what star/planet/space colony this is?

As I am in the Southern Hemisphere and lack actual observing experience, I can't tell for certain which star / planet it is.

I would like to find out what time you saw this object (was it close to dusk / twilight, or just after), and whether there were any other stars in the sky, besides the one you saw and Orion's belt (they could be very faint)?

It's likely to be the planet Venus or the star Sirius, the latter of which is bright both due to its intrinsic (actual) brightness and it's relatively close distance to us (compared with other stars).

Additionally, regarding Orion's belt, basically what you are looking for is a string of three stars that form a straight line, with two stars on either side of the "line" (i.e. total of four stars), so that two trapeziums are formed by the "belt" and the four other stars (two of which represent the shoulders of Orion the Hunter, with the other two representing his knees).

I hope this helped. Check out http://www.astronomy.com and you're bound to find more interesting and informative stuff there (but it may not directly answer your question though).

If it wasn't twinkling, it could have been Venus.

If it was directly underneath Orions Belt, than I'm fairly certain it's Rigel.

SnoringFrog (post: 1348230) wrote:As I was putting my dog outside tonight, I noticed a particular star and it's bugging me that I don't know what it is. It was pretty low in the north/northeast sky (I could just see it over my neighbor's rooftop) and was exceptionally bright and twinkly. From what I recall of the little astronomy I studied, I don't know of any really bright star that would be in that location, or is this a planet or something that would move around more like that? (That's my suspicion, since I've never noticed it before.) I think it's located almost directly under Orion's Belt, unless what I thought was Orion's Belt wasn't Orion's Belt, it did seem a bit dim tonight, and it's between that and the horizon. I live in the eastern part of North Carolina, if that'll help figure this out (well, I live there whether or not it helps...lol).

Anyone know what star/planet/space colony this is?

Given that it is below Orion's belt, it cannot be a planet, since it is so far off of the ecliptic. Like Frail Dreams said, it is most likely Rigel.

Maybe it was an Aliem Space Ship! 8D

I'd say Rigel.

Rigel is on Orion's "foot". If the star was a bit far down and to the left, it was most likely Rigel you saw.
But, if what you saw was directly under the belt, you may have seen either the Orion Nebula (can't recall if that's visible without a telescope though) or one of the stars M43 or M42.
EDIT: Or the Trapezium Star Cluster.

Maybe it was a laser guide star!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_guide_star

Check to see if it's up there tonight, or download a program for looking at stars and switch the time back to last night and look for a star in the location you saw it that looks somewhat similar in magnitude. It might of course be a super-nova, but I believe that would gain some pretty big attention on the news.

It's Junius 7.

@Sammy: I saw it at about 11pm, my time. So it was in the middle of the night. There were other stars out, but nothing I recognized right off.

@K. Ayato: It was definitely twinkling, so it wasn't a planet I guess.

@the Rigel crowd: I thought it was too far away to be part of Orion, but that does sound like a good possibility. It's too cloudy in that part of the sky to check again tonight, but I'll be watching for a while to see if I see it again and looking up some stuff to see if it is indeed Rigel. I don't remember Rigel ever standing out that much to me though, would there be any reason for it being so much brighter than anything else that night and so much brighter than I'd remember?

It could also be Serius, which is the brightest star in the sky, although that seems further than you had indicated. Have you checked a sky atlas?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

No to all of the above.

A quick trip to your online Sky Chart (http://www.astroviewer.com/index.html, make sure you adjust time/location correctly) would show that Orion is nowhere to be seen at 11 PM during early fall nights. (Remember that while Scorpio is visible in the night sky, as it is throughout Summer, Orion cannot be seen, and vice versa. Goes back to the legend...)

Possibilities: I don't know your latitude [EDIT: whoops, NC...], but a star that bright in the northeast is likely either Aldebaran or Capella. This would be peculiar, as neither of these stars is known for its exceptional brightness -- but perhaps it has to do with your perception of brightness versus the cloudy sky. (Another surprising thing: the moon was moving toward its full phase, it should have washed out most of the lower magnitude stars.) Could it have been part of Cassiopeia? Those stars are notable, but they are higher...

[EDIT: If it was slightly later -- say midnight or so -- and East, rather than NE or N, it could be Orion...]

I looked again tonight and could see it. It seems to flicker a lot more than anything else out there. Using that site CO linked to has lead me to believe that it is Vega. I found Cassiopia (the the left and up from the moon), and this star was between those two, but much lower than Cassiopeia, sort of aligned with her line of 3 stars though. In between the queen and the star I was trying to figure out I think I found the Swan, which means I was probably looking at Vega, and it had the 3-4 small star around it, but they were very faint.

On the other side (far left of the queen), I'm pretty sure I located Capella, which would again help confirm that I was looking at Vega.

Sorry, carry on...

SnoringFrog (post: 1348950) wrote:On the other side (far left of the queen), I'm pretty sure I located Capella, which would again help confirm that I was looking at Vega.

Vega would be a good candidate for a nice, bright star. I think it lies more NW than NE at around midnight, but it's one you really can't miss.

When you say Vega, are you referring to the dictator or the guy with the claw? Neither one? Never mind, then.

Google Sky

Maybe this will help.

You can do a search for Rigel and you'll see Orion's Belt in the upper left.
I believe that the Google Earth download also has the Sky feature, but more interactive so you can know what you're looking at.