Last Night in Goulburn

[Marianne]

For some weeks now around this time 6.45 pm when I go outside & look North /West there is a very large/bright lonely star - alsways the first one & some nights the only on. I have tried my telescope but being an amature I'm unable to see anything other than a bright light (practice make perfect I know) but if this star or maybe plant has a name I would be greatful for the answer. Cheers:)

[renormalised]

If it's brighter than all the other stars, it's the planet Venus.

[Octane]

Marianne,

Carl is right -- it's Venus. Often referred to as the Evening Star (or Morning Star) for this very reason. ; )

H

[JohnG]

Yep, Venus, if you look below it over the next week or two you will also see Mercury glowing quite brightly, and above Venus in a line are Mars and Saturn.

Cheers

[Dennis]

Here we go. This is what my planetarium program, The Sky 6 Pro shows for the West at 6:45pm tonight. We can see Venus towards the middle of the frame. Although the screen capture cannot display the relative intensities of the objects shown here, Venus is easily the most conspicuous object in the view due to its intense brightness compared to the other celestial bodies.

Cheers

Dennis

[mithrandir]

As John was alluding, there is a good conjunction next month - August 12 and 13.

Mercury, Venus, Saturn and the Moon are all within 10 degrees of each other in the evening sky. Stellarium view for the 12th with the Moon near Mercury. On the 13th the Moon is close to Venus.

[Paddy]

Hi Marianne and welcome. the only thing that I'd add is that it doesn't matter how experienced you are you will not see detail on Venus due to the dense reflective clouds. The cloud cover is why it's so bright. You will be able to observe phases similar to those of the moon.

[renormalised]

I'm looking to remedy that very soon. I'll send my room fan up there to clear all the clouds out of the way so we can see what we're looking at:):P