What was next to the moon last night?

[Travesso]

Hey, I was checking the crescent moon last night for the first time with my 20x80 triplets and I gotta say it looked awesome, but what was the bright orange planet to the right of the moon around 8pm? Was it mars? I saw Jupiter lower in the sky and its moons so I know it wasnt Jupiter.

[[1ponders]]

It was Antares Travesso. There should be a thread around about it somewhere, with images

[iceman]

It was Antares, and it was a great sight!

There's some pictures here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=13726

[[1ponders]]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=13726&highlight=antares

[[1ponders]]

Damn your quick Mike :lol:

[ving]

oh, and antares isnt a planet its a star :)

its supposed to be the heart of scorpius i believe... well its in scorpius any how. quite a sight hey! :)

[JimmyH155]

That star, Travesso, is MASSIVE. The reason you thought it was a planet is because it looks orange. It is actually a Red GIANT (I think the biggest in the sky) and I believe the whole of our Solar system could fit inside it) Inside that star is a vacuum far greater than anybody on Earth could make!:) It is going to go POP soon (give or take a few million years) and will become a supernova. It has also got a mate up there which orbits around it, but it is very difficult to see because of the brightness of the primary. Amazing stuff:D

[Travesso]

heheh... I just got home from work and checked on Starrynight. Antares hey? Would have never thought it was a star cuz it doesnt flicker at all... I guess that is the whole red giant thing huh. The journey continues... :)

[Lee]

From http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/antares.html

ANTARES (Alpha Scorpii). A brilliant jewel set within the Milky Way (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/sgrwide-t.html), Antares guides us to one of the great constellations of the sky, the Zodiac (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/celsph.html#zodiac)'s Scorpius (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/sco-p.html) (or Scorpio), the celestial scorpion, one of the few constellations that actually looks like what it represents. Antares, a class M (M1.5) red supergiant (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/star_intro.html#highmass) gleaming redly at the scorpion's heart, has a color similar to Mars (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/arc/sk111805.html). Since it is found within the Zodiac, which contains the apparent path of the Sun and planets, it is commonly mistaken for the red planet, a fact shown by its name, Antares, or "Ant-Ares," which means "like Mars," "Ares" being the Greek name for the god of war. This magnificent first magnitude (typically 0.96) star, shining opposite Betelgeuse (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/betelgeuse.html), its counterpart in Orion (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/orion-p.html), is ranked the 15th brightest in the sky. It is, however, a semi-regular variable that can change by several tenths of magnitude over a period of years. Its great distance of 600 light years reveals that it is truly luminous, to the eye over 10,000 times brighter than the Sun. Because it is cool, only about 3600 degrees Kelvin at its surface, it radiates a considerable amount of its light in the invisible infrared. When that is taken into account, the star becomes some 60,000 times brighter than the Sun (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/sun.html). A low temperature coupled with high luminosity tells us that the star must be huge, luminosity and temperature giving a radius of about 3 Astronomical Units. It is so big that astronomers can easily detect and measure the size of its apparent disk, which gives an even bigger radius of 3.8 AU, three-fourths the size of the orbit of Jupiter The difference is caused by uncertainties in distance, temperature, and the actual location of the mass-losing surface, as the star is slowly evaporating under a fierce wind that has encased it in a gas cloud, or nebula, that shines by light scattered from the ultraluminous star within. Buried within the wind is a fifth magnitude (5.5) hot class B (B2.5) companion star (only 3 seconds of arc away) that hides within Antares' bright glare. The two are separated by roughly 550 AU and take perhaps 2500 years to orbit each other. The companion hollows out a small ionized region within the wind, and although blue-white, has the reputation of appearing green as a result of a contrast effect with its brilliant reddish mate. Antares, with a mass of 15 to 18 solar masses, probably does not have much time left to it. It is massive enough someday to develop an iron core and eventually to explode as a brilliant supernova (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/star_intro.html#supernovae). The event may be a million years off, an astronomical blink of an eye; or it may occur tonight, so keep a watch on one of the great stars of the nighttime sky. The companion, however, at around 7 to 8 solar masses, seems to be just below the supernova limit and will probably die as a massive white dwarf (http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/%7Ekaler/sow/star_intro.html#whitedwarfs).

[CoombellKid]

I've managed to split Antares quite easily on a good night, with
a 8" f/6 newt @ 240x. The companion is on the preceding side
from memory ummmm errrr hmmmm.... I need another look.

regards,CS sunny days

Rob

PS: Ving you are correct Antares is the heart of the Scopion.
Well at least that what I know anyways, although Starry Night
Pro put's it right behind/in/on it's left eyeball. Perhaps it's one
of those one eye'd scorpions, with really no heart at all.