What Did I Look At Last Night?

[theleetbeagle]

Hello. Brand new here. Thanks for having me. Complete amateur so please bear with me.

I live in Ohio and last night had a very clear sky.

Something shown awfully bright in the south sky. Dunno how long it was visible, probably all night, but I noticed it around midnight.

From Googling just now, I see that Jupiter shows plain as day in the south right now.

This was easy the brightest thing in the south sky, but I wonder if it was indeed Jupiter or something else.

Thanks!
-Nick.

[Carlos_dfc]

Yep - definitely Jupiter.

Do you have binoculars?
Point them at it tonight (or whenever you have a clear sky) - it'll be there for months (getting slightly earlier each night)

It should appear as a small disk (rather than a point of light, like stars)
Then look for a row of up to 4 small dots stretching to each side of it - they are the 4 Gallilean moons, and are easily visible in 10x binoculars.

[EVERYTHING]

maybe it's a star, because stars usually make there own light. If it was a large bright object, then I'm guessing it's your binocular's adjustments?

[Carlos_dfc]

Jupiter is far brighter than any star at the moment - only the Sun and Moon outshine it at the moment.

[cyris]

99% its Jupiter