weird "star" in the sky. Aberdeenshire.
Discussion
I am just shutting up shop for the night and looked outside. to the south west of pitmedden i can see a star in the sky. not so weird you might think seeing as it is nighttime but it is changing colour rapidly. from red to green and blue with everything in between.
at first i thought it was a plane but it has not moved for the last 10 mins.
Can anyone else see it or do i need need specs?
at first i thought it was a plane but it has not moved for the last 10 mins.
Can anyone else see it or do i need need specs?
Jupiter and Venus are up at the moment, quite near each other.
If it changes colour, is relatively stationary and is often a lot brighter than the surrounding stars then it is a planet, either Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn (occasionally you can see Mercury and Uranus but they are not brighter than stars). You will always see a planet in the path that the sun tracks across the sky, the ecliptic.
Venus will be up either in the morning before the sun comes up or in the evening after the sun goes down depending on whether it is ahead of the Earth in it's orbit around the sun or behind. This is why Venus is often referred to as the 'Morning Star' or 'Evening Star'. It is by far the brightest thing in the night sky, save the moon and is silvery white, sometimes having a yellowish tinge.
Mars will look red, can be the brightest when in opposition (same side of the sun as Earth).
Jupiter will look bright white, most often the brightest after Venus.
Saturn will look white with a yellow tinge and only as bright as the brightest stars.
If it changes colour, is relatively stationary and is often a lot brighter than the surrounding stars then it is a planet, either Venus, Mars, Jupiter or Saturn (occasionally you can see Mercury and Uranus but they are not brighter than stars). You will always see a planet in the path that the sun tracks across the sky, the ecliptic.
Venus will be up either in the morning before the sun comes up or in the evening after the sun goes down depending on whether it is ahead of the Earth in it's orbit around the sun or behind. This is why Venus is often referred to as the 'Morning Star' or 'Evening Star'. It is by far the brightest thing in the night sky, save the moon and is silvery white, sometimes having a yellowish tinge.
Mars will look red, can be the brightest when in opposition (same side of the sun as Earth).
Jupiter will look bright white, most often the brightest after Venus.
Saturn will look white with a yellow tinge and only as bright as the brightest stars.
Interesting stuff.
This thing I saw last night I would have thought was moving too quickly for a planet. In the space of half an hour it had almost gone from view completely behind the houses (Very hard thing to quantify where it actually was in the sky).
I saw the planets the other night and it definately wasn't one of those.
The thing I saw last night was twinking like nothing i'd ever seen before. Really vivid colours.
This thing I saw last night I would have thought was moving too quickly for a planet. In the space of half an hour it had almost gone from view completely behind the houses (Very hard thing to quantify where it actually was in the sky).
I saw the planets the other night and it definately wasn't one of those.
The thing I saw last night was twinking like nothing i'd ever seen before. Really vivid colours.
danrc said:
Interesting stuff.
This thing I saw last night I would have thought was moving too quickly for a planet. In the space of half an hour it had almost gone from view completely behind the houses (Very hard thing to quantify where it actually was in the sky).
I saw the planets the other night and it definately wasn't one of those.
The thing I saw last night was twinking like nothing i'd ever seen before. Really vivid colours.
Can't be the ISS (International Space Station) as that crosses the sky in around 2-5 minutes, but apart from that it fits your description very well as it 'twinkles' a lot as the various solar panels reflect sunlight toward the observer.This thing I saw last night I would have thought was moving too quickly for a planet. In the space of half an hour it had almost gone from view completely behind the houses (Very hard thing to quantify where it actually was in the sky).
I saw the planets the other night and it definately wasn't one of those.
The thing I saw last night was twinking like nothing i'd ever seen before. Really vivid colours.
messcotti said:
+1 for Jupiter and Venus, both VERY bright in the sky and almost on top of each other ATM...
Definately wasn't Jupiter or Venus. I saw those the other night and know where they are in the sky in relation to what I saw last night. This was something else which was moving very slowly - quicker than a planet but slower than a sattelite, plane, helicopter, lantern etc. 
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