What is this STAR in the western sky?

[raafi_devil]

hello friends.. m new in this forum.. i was just randomly searching thru google about this STAR is the western sky.. and i get into this forum..

any way.. can any body help me with this...

there is a STAR in the western sky (I can see from sydney) appears long b4 sunset.. and stayz for 4/5 hours.. den gets dimmer.. and i donno i lost it then..

and there was another star (I'll call star cuz it was shiny tho it might b a planet or sumthing..) just at 11 o'clock of that SHINY STAR.. later on it changed positon towards 10 o clock..

what is this thing..

i'v never seen this things b4..

and da more complicating thing is.. this.. i think it was much smaller when i first saw it..

so yeeh.. m looking forward for sum information about this..

Thanking u..

Raafi

[Carlos_dfc]

Venus

Very bright at the moment - do you have any optical equipment such as binoculars or a spotting scope?
Take a look at it - preferably with 15x magnification or more - i looks like a tiny version of the Moon, and is at the moment roughly at half-phase.
Over the next couple of months that half-phase will shrink to a thin crescent.

The other 'star' - lower at 11-oclock from venus is another planet - Jupiter.
Binoculars will show up to 4 mooons, in a line either side of it - and if you can get above 20x magnification you may be able to see sme cloud-band detail.
Best to look before it gets too low though - when a planet is low in the sky, Earth's atmosphere obscures details such as cloud bands.

Actually - slightly lower, and left of Jupiter at the moment, is yet another planet - Mercury
Smaller and dimmer than the other two - but worth a look if you have a clear sky soon.
It is reckoned that the great ancient astronomer Copernicus never got to actually see Mercury for himself

Section of a screenshot from 'Starry Night Pro' software - Looking west, from near Sydney, a little while after sunset.

[FatherGuse]

... Starry Night Pro ... got to love it ... but I have not bought a copy yet ...

... Raffi ... download Stellarium, it is a free program that you can use to help you locate stars, planets, etc ... it has a pretty slick "scroll time forward" feature that will let you plan what to look for later in the evening ...

[Carlos_dfc]

Originally Posted by FatherGuse

Starry Night Pro ... got to love it ... but I have not bought a copy yet ...

Me neither

[panhard]

Starry night is great.

[johnleveritt]

Originally Posted by panhard

Starry night is great.

Yes, Starry Night is great. I personally have the Pro Plus version, and it tells me that the "star" isn't a star, but Venus.

[star drop]

Hi Raafi,

Welcome to the forum.

[panhard]

Originally Posted by johnleveritt

Yes, Starry Night is great. I personally have the Pro Plus version, and it tells me that the "star" isn't a star, but Venus.

Yes it is too bad it's been cloudy here since the end of October.

[Carlos_dfc]

Originally Posted by johnleveritt

Yes, Starry Night is great. I personally have the Pro Plus version, and it tells me that the "star" isn't a star, but Venus.

I have version 5 'pro' - and version 6 'pro-plus' both installed - and I tend to use 5-pro the most.
I'm not keen on the way that the the all-sky image re-generates to show more detail, as you zoom deeper on v6 p-p - much prefer the look of v5p, the way dimmer stars seem to come at you from the blackness, as you zoom

That's not a criticism though - Just personal preference - I'm sure many people will prefer the 'look' of the zoom function on v6
Both v5 pro, and v6 pro-plus are awesome pieces of software

[johnleveritt]

Originally Posted by Carlos_dfc

I have version 5 'pro' - and version 6 'pro-plus' both installed - and I tend to use 5-pro the most.
I'm not keen on the way that the the all-sky image re-generates to show more detail, as you zoom deeper on v6 p-p - much prefer the look of v5p, the way dimmer stars seem to come at you from the blackness, as you zoom

That's not a criticism though - Just personal preference - I'm sure many people will prefer the 'look' of the zoom function on v6
Both v5 pro, and v6 pro-plus are awesome pieces of software

I had the 5 Pro Plus version, and upgraded to the 6 Pro Plus, both of which are nice.

I can't remember the first version that I bought, it was a long time ago.