MadSci Network: Astronomy |
The object you were looking at was most likely Venus, the second planet from the Sun. Venus was close to the eastern horizon, but extremely bright. Venus was probably the only object you could see in the sky since the Sun was due to come up shortly. If it had been a little earlier in the morning, the object you were looking at might have also been Jupiter, approximately half way up the southwest part of the sky. The third brightest object is a star called Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, which was low in the southeast. Brightness is rated on the magnitude scale. The lower the number the brighter the object. Also, 5 magnitudes represent a change of brightness of 100. Most of the visible stars in the sky rate from magnitude 0 to 6, with the sixth magnitude requiring fairly dark skies. The Moon is -12.6, the Sun is -26, and the Hubble telescope has seen objects down to 30 magnitude. On Wed Sept 15 at 6 AM in Illinois USA you can see: Venus -4.4 low in the east Jupiter -2.6 midway in the southwest Sirius -1.46 low in southeast Venus is currently rising and will put on a good show in the morning sky. Jupiter is currently rising in the evening and is visible most of the night, and is close to Saturn (-0.3 mag). The two make a nice pair. Historically, Venus was once called the morning star and the evening star. At the time they didn't know that these 'stars' were the same object but now we know. If you wish to know more about where the planets are at any time in the night sky you have many options. You can check out either of the two major astronomy magazines -- Astronomy and Sky&Telescope. Infomation on the planets is available in each monthly issue, in their yearly guides and on their websites (http://www.skypub.com). This information can also be gathered from most popular astronomy software. Or perhaps your local astronomy club gives out this information. Best regards, Brent
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Astronomy.