Jupiter visible in the night sky?

[Celtaur]

Last night I woke up at around 5 am, and saw out the window the most amazingly bright, large object. I thought it was a UFO I swear. I put my specs on to see better, and it was huge. It still seemed blurry though, like the brightness was overwhelming. I tried rubbing my eyes, still somewhat blurry, not a crisply defined border.

It appeared to be moving around and I wasn't sure... "are my eyes playing tricks?" I kept rubbing my eyes, staring, then clued in to the clouds moving swiftly which probably created an illusion of movement. I stared for nearly an hour at this object, cluing in after a while that maybe this is Jupiter.

I remember taking a course in Astronomy which I think was in the late summer when it starts to get cooler at night, and late at night it would come over the horizon in the south slightly around 10pm or a bit later. I'll have to do a little research to see. This was quite high in the sky, possibly because it was around 5am. I'm not sure though, maybe it was the space station, I know that is quite bright in the sky.

Interestingly about 10 minutes into staring at what I thought was Jupiter there were 2 flashes. Now it could have been a helicopter as they do flash, and it was cloudy so maybe it just popped through the clouds for a moment, but my mind was captured in wonder. You know how the starry sky does that

Anyone else see a big bright object in the sky?

[redbear]

Celtaur, what direction were you looking towards?

I found the following here...

All this month – during September 2010 – the queen planet Venus sets in the west as the king planet Jupiter rises in the east. Our chart shows the eastern sky at early evening for mid-northern latitudes, with Jupiter – the sky’s second brightest planet – shining to the lower right of the Great Square of Pegasus.

[Haruth]

Yes - probably Jupiter, Celtaur. He is very bright just now, and has been causing me all sorts of confusion myself! I'm a bit of a Venus fan, and am used to looking up for her in the evening / morning. Jupiter has been a bit of a confused distraction for the last few months, particularly in the hours of darkness - where Venus just shouldn't be!!

[Celtaur]

Oh ok, so you mean if I look out tonight at 5am and see that same bright light I can rule out UFO Good! I'm not ready to be taken yet.

Funny, I had a lot of really auspicious dreams about lots of money then woke up to Jupiter, no that's an omen of good fortune!

Venus appears in the morning and evening right... the morning star, the bringer of light, the sun follows it according to our perspective, am I right or totally off base?

[Celtaur]

Celtaur, what direction were you looking towards?

I found the following here...

All this month – during September 2010 – the queen planet Venus sets in the west as the king planet Jupiter rises in the east. Our chart shows the eastern sky at early evening for mid-northern latitudes, with Jupiter – the sky’s second brightest planet – shining to the lower right of the Great Square of Pegasus.

I'm pretty sure it's west, so does that mean Jupiter shows up in the early evening in the east, but late like 5am the next morning would be in the West or does it hang out in the east rise and set there? I'm confused.

I'm setting up my telescope and going to definitely take a look if I wake up early.

[Haruth]

Venus appears in the morning and evening right... the morning star, the bringer of light, the sun follows it according to our perspective, am I right or totally off base?

Only missing one little bit there, Celtaur.

Venus lies within about a 50º arc of the sun. As it completes its orbit in just over 224 days, it manages to "overtake" the earth in around 584 days, causing it to appear as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. (She is the Morning Star when ahead of the sun, and the Evening Star when she is following the sun from our perspective).

The periods as evening and morning star average about 263 days each, disappearing on the near side of the sun for about 8 days and on the far side for around 50 days - producing the full 584 day cycle.

I'm pretty sure it's west, so does that mean Jupiter shows up in the early evening in the east, but late like 5am the next morning would be in the West or does it hang out in the east rise and set there? I'm confused.

Not confused at all... everything in the sky rises in the east and sets in the west... So around 5am Jupiter would be very bright in the western sky.

[Celtaur]

Only missing one little bit there, Celtaur.

Venus lies within about a 50º arc of the sun. As it completes its orbit in just over 224 days, it manages to "overtake" the earth in around 584 days, causing it to appear as both the Morning Star and the Evening Star. (She is the Morning Star when ahead of the sun, and the Evening Star when she is following the sun from our perspective).

The periods as evening and morning star average about 263 days each, disappearing on the near side of the sun for about 8 days and on the far side for around 50 days - producing the full 584 day cycle.

Not confused at all... everything in the sky rises in the east and sets in the west... So around 5am Jupiter would be very bright in the western sky.

Oh ok... I knew things rise in the east and set in the west, but thought Jupiter was so low on the horizon in the south that it never really reached high in the sky to seem like an actual arc. But, now that I think about it, I think that was the case when I was taking the astronomy course because it was the early part of Jupiters cycle being visible to us in the north, that it just rose and set very quickly staying low on the horizon. I suppose it's later now being September which allows Jupiter to be higher in the sky so the arc from east to west would be much more prominent.

I actually went for a walk this evening and saw that brilliant bright light in the sky. It was in the east, so it makes sense, at 5 am it would be on the other side of the sky. Looking forward to enjoying taking a closer look with the telescope.

I'll have to wrap my head around the Venus arc overtaking the earth. Merci beaucoup for the info.

[Haruth]

I'll have to wrap my head around the Venus arc overtaking the earth. Merci beaucoup for the info.

Found this nice little explanation here.

Evening and Morning Star. The earth is shown at the bottom of the illustration, and for our purposes, consider it to be at rest. So let's look at Venus at different places in the orbit. It is orbiting around the sun counterclockwise in this illustration, and the earth is rotating on its axis in that same direction, causing night and day. When Venus is on the left side of the illustration between positions 3 and 5, it appears as an evening star, when it is on the right side between positions 6 and 2, it is a morning star. In the other positions on the near and far side of the orbits, it is too near the sun to be seen.

When Venus moves from position 5 to position 6, it essentially "overtakes" the Earth on its orbit.

Hope that helps a little.

[Celtaur]

Found this nice little explanation here.

When Venus moves from position 5 to position 6, it essentially "overtakes" the Earth on its orbit.

Hope that helps a little.

Oh I see, so I would guess between 1,2 and 3, in this example, it would appear as retrograde too.

[Haruth]

Oh I see, so I would guess between 1,2 and 3, in this example, it would appear as retrograde too.

It really is a darned good diagram!

She certainly is retrograde as you surmise (actually as she moves between the 3 O' Clock and 9 O 'Clock position). Need to bear in mind that rather than being static, the earth is moving in the same direction around the sun, so the period of retrograde motion and forward motion don't match as the 3-9 9-3 split might suggest.

Top of the class, young man