Unnaturally bright star spotted

Yesterday evening I was up at the Monopteros in the Englischergarten around sunset. And I saw the brightest star ever. Brighter than Venus, and way too far from the sun to be Venus. It would have been about West maybe up to 20 degrees North of West, at an elevation of 30 to 40 degrees around 20:00. It was the only visible star for an hour.

Checked on CNN “Science & space� this morning thinking that a new supernova would be big news, but nothing about it.

Anybody else notice a very bright star last night, and got a decent explanation as to what was going on.

No, but I noticed the moon which was almost full I believe. Sure it wasn't the moon you saw?

I did not notice it either. I was shooting the skies yesterday ever since the sunset in all directions. I did not notice it. May be God was playing the April fools day wid ya

That was no moon.

It may have been this asteroid that came within 2 million miles of us over the weekend.

Chart for 31.3 - 1.4 available as Pdf here.

Hah. And you thought my father was just a navigator on a spice freighter.

It's a space station!

I saw it too. I assumed it was Venus.

I'm sure it wasn't the space station, because I've seen the space station while sailing, and it moves (rotates the earth in 1 hour). I'm also sure it wasn't a plane because there were planes up there, but while being very bright, they were also moving.

And I'm also sure it wasn't the moon or Venus. It was brighter than Venus, and way too far from the sun. Venus is called the morning star because it can normally only be seen just before sunrise. Its always close to the sun (obviously) so it rises just before the sun.

The asteroid is also unikely, this was the brightest start I've ever seen, not something I needed a telescope for.


I've even PM'd Jeremy, but he seems to be in hibernation. Maybe I should call NASA and say I want it called the Axe supernova.

That depends on what side of the sun it's on. It's EITHER visible in the morning just before sunrise OR in the evening just after sunset (and sets itself shortly thereafter).

Think it's Venus allright, it's visible in April as evening star low above the horizon near the constellation of Taurus and disappers about 11.30 p.m.

Yeah, yeah, I know . I was just quoting Star Wars after Ed Bob's post. The ISS will be the brightest thing in the night sky after the moon once they add a couple of solar arrays.


It's closer to 90 minutes but you're right in that it that it clearly moves across the sky quite quickly.

Where are djgrazy, Pleb and all the other conspiracy theorists to speculate on its origins?

- Not moon
- Not Venus
- Not ISS
- Not plane
- Not swamp gas

It must be aliens.

Actually I just did the calculations. The Earth is about 150Gm (Giga metres) from the sun and venus is 109 Gm. The max possible observable angle between the sun and Venus would be inverse sin(109/150) which is about 46 degrees.

I always thought Venus appears very close to the sun, but as I said it appeared to have an elevation of 30-40 degrees, so based on those calculations it could easily have been Venus.

But I still think it was too bright for Venus. One hour after I saw it, there were still no other stars visible.

Sorry, I'm late to the party as usual.

Bugger, I just found a planet map

Nice little application but it places Venus roughly where I oberved the supernova

Venus was at 257 degrees from north and 34 degrees up in the sky at that time. I am fairly certain that is what you saw. This is according to Stellarium.

AFAIK Venus can attain an elevation of up to 50 degrees in the sky.

Was trying to sort thgis wone out yesterday but no time and stressed with the kids.

Here goes. Output from www.stellarium.org free software.

I also noticed it a few days ago too and looked at it yesterday evening more; and still wondering what it is. My binoculars didn't reveal much either.

I mean the air around cities is pretty polluted; Munich is no exception, and it's just too bright to be a star. Thing is it's right above the sunset; which suggests it maybe reflects the sunlight after sunset? At the same time it's too stable to be artificial. Any other ideas?

That is Venus for sure.

The Sun is the brightest object in the sky
The Moon the 2nd and
Venus the 3rd

The star you see is Venus

Did anyone happen to look up at the sky on Saturday evening? The crescent moon with Venus shining brilliantly just a short distance to the left of it - absolutely stunning! Don't have a picture, sorry, but it reminded me of the crescent and star on the Turkish flag which, according to some legends, had its origin in a similar constellation.

Yeah, it was lovely!

Yeah, I did. It was beautiful and I also had to think of the Turkish flag. I was cursing about not owning the mother of all cameras as I really wanted to take a pic. Perhaps somebody else did?

If it makes you feel any better, I made the same mistake last month in Turkey. I was certain that the time and location were both wrong, it couldn't possibly be Venus, and that I was seeing a nova even though there was nothing to be found online about such an event. The sky is fucking awesome.

woof.