the brightest star in the sky

[emmie]

from our window you can see an incredibly bright star.
On very clear nights, with no cloud cover, there it seems to sit, twinkling away, and i wonder what it is. I am no astronomer, though happy to listen and learn from those who are interested and knowledgeable. someone else
who doesn't live in the capital has asked me, and i said i wasn't sure.

[bibblebub]

stellarium is an excellent program for seeing what is visible http://stellarium.org/

[jake-the-peg]

If it's that bright it's most likely going to be a planet.

I think Jupiter is quite prominant at the moment due south and rises just after sunset

Does that sound possible?

[wendilla]

Jupiter is the brightest planet at the moment.

[emmie]

I wondered if it was, as someone else mentioned, not sirius then

[wendilla]

http://www.skyandtele.../observing/ataglance/

[jake-the-peg]

Sirius is the brightest star but it's not as bright as people often think it is.

Sirius is low in the sky below Orion

http://commons.wikime...le:Finding_sirius.png

[emmie]

Looked at those pictures, excellent, i find it an interesting subject, and often wonder about our planet in the grand scheme of things.

[wendilla]

http://www.schoolsobs...uk/astro/esm/nightsky

[emmie]

must be Jupiter, thank you all, i wish the capital didn't get quite so much cloud cover, as i am sure that you could see a lot more. I remember being
in Greece, and the sky was so beautiful at night.

[jake-the-peg]

Sirius is quite interesting for a number of reasons, it's quite close to us about 8 light years and has a small white dwarf star orbiting it (actually it's quite large for a white dwarf about the mass of the sun)

It was one of the first white dwarves found - you need a pretty good telescope.

Sirius is the "dog star" following at the heels of Orion the Hunter and Sirius B has been nicknamed "the pup" (all together aaah)

But I still think you're most likely looking at Jupiter

[wendilla]

Where I am I have wide space view of open sky and this is why I get super views of the Spacestation. I forget that some people in built up areas don't get the same view.

[heathfield]

One of the features of Jupiter is that it doesn't twinkle.

[woofgang]

stars twinkle planets don't. If its low, bright and doesn't twinkle, most likely its Venus

[emmie]

might not be that then, i don't possess nor have room for a telescope, so only can go on what one sees.

[heathfield]

Tonight, Jupiter will be directly southeast at 9:30pm, and due south at around a quarter past midnight.

[emmie]

its not low, i do know that much, and in built up areas like ours you see plenty of planes criss-crossing, but this is very bright, perhaps it doesn't shimmer, twinkle i don't know, but i think it's Jupiter.

[jake-the-peg]

Do you have a pair of binoculars?

With Jupiter you should be able to make out 4 tiny moons around it.

There are the Galeleian satellites Calisto Europa Ganymede and Io