Spotted from north of uk, is there any smart arses here that can tell me what is that bright spot next to the moon? Never saw that before. That blue one is just reflection from my shitty camera

by roblubi

48 comments

  3. Theres a free planetarium software called Stellarium that shows you in real time what you can see in the night sky. Saturn and Jupiter both very visible atm,helps viewing with binoculars.

  9. I saw a similar thing once when I was at a music festival. I thought I was tripping.

    … turns out I was tripping but it was also Jupiter.

  11. Strictly speaking, the Sun’s light reflecting off Jupiter.

  12. If you ever see a bright dot like that in the sky again just assume it’s Jupiter because 99.9% of the time, it’s Jupiter 

  15. The google sky map app used to be great for solving questions like this.
    I found it was getting very inaccurate a while back though and could never get it to calibrate properly.

  18. You took a picture of it with a phone capable of running Google Sky Map so you could post it here to ask us what it is. 

  19. What white dot OP? You have a dead pixel on your phone… 😜

  21. Yeah, jupiter. It’s right behind the moon now so may look odd.

  27. That’s the planet Jupiter. By about 8 o’clock the moon will have moved so it’s even closer in the sky.

  29. “Across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us…”

  33. I can see that too and wondered what it was. Thanks Redditors

  36. There’s an app for that. Obviously.
    Search the app store for “Sky map”

  38. It is Jupiter. Get the Sky Map app and it show you.

  39. Jupiter.

    If you see Orion’s belt and follow the 3 stars down (or right to left) and continue in a slight curve you come to a bright star. That is sirius the brightest star in our night sky.

    Anything brighter than that isn’t a star (except the Sun, of course – but we’re talking night sky) so obviously you can see the moon and, anything else bright is going to be a planet.

    The 3 brightest planets are Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Venus is exceptional, but, because where it is in relation to us it’s typically seen either before sunrise or after sunset as it’s generally near the sun in the sky. Hence why it’s often also called ‘morning star’ or ‘evening’ star’ – but obviously the star bit is wrong.

    Mars and Jupiter are reasonably similar in terms of how they look. Sometimes Mars is brighter than typical because it gets a bit closer to us. i.e without knowing it’s not easy to say which is which. Through powerful binoculars or a telescope you can see a couple of Jupiter’s moons which makes it clear and is a pretty impressive thing to see with one (another is the rings on Saturn)

    If you know the constellations that form the astrological signs the planets are usually near one of these (in a 2d looking sense, obviously they are not actually near) – which is when in Astrology they say bullshit like ‘Mars is in Leo so expect an argument” – but the point is that’s another way to find them in the sky (except use astronomy sites not astrological ones)

    Again because the distance of the planets from the Sun they move around in the sky different. That tends to mean Jupiter is in a particular constellation for a lot longer and its apparent motion is less than that of the closer planets.

    Sites like this one will give you things to look for :-

    [https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury/](https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury/)

    As you can see it’s Jupiter. Venus you’d have to get up early to see and Mercury and Mars are both rising a little later than it.

  41. I was literally just thinking this, thanks for the post and all the comments.👍

  42. I have been looking at that tonight! I swear it moves

  43. It looks like it’s moving about or is that just coz I’m high ?

  44. It’s probably Jupiter. If your ever wondering this theres a few wee tips you can keep in mind.

    If it’s twinkling, it’s a star.
    If it’s not twinkling, and it’s stationary it’s one of the planets.
    If it’s not twinkling and it’s moving in a straight path across the sky it’s either a satellite or the space station.
    If it’s causing daylight it’s the star our planet orbits.

  46. Thank you for posting this, I noticed and didn’t think further than that, so cool!

  47. I am kind of speechless. I love learning about space, the solar system, planets, black holes etc but I’ve never even attempted to be an astronomer.
    When I shut my curtains tonight I saw exactly this immediately and assumed it was a satellite. I spent a few mins watching and was confused as I assumed a satellite would move faster. I would loolnat if for as long as I could now knowing it was Jupiter!

  48. I thought the same and reading these replies it’s pretty cool that’s it’s Jupiter something that far away

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