What am I seeing?

[BobBuilder (Robert)]

Hi,
I'm down in Tassie - south of Hobart. I've been trying to work out what I saw the other day - came across your forum and thought you'd be my best bet...

The other morning (21st or 22nd July, 2009) at about 5.30am I could see (naked eye) what I thought was a very bright Venus at about 15 degrees from the horizon in the North East.

But I could also see a second object - just as bright, which I would also have described as Venus at about 20 degrees up in the west.

I've only ever seen Venus looking this bright - so what was the second object? I'm sure it must have been a planet - and it didn't have the characteristic Mars look about it - really bright white - just like a very bright star.

Can anyone enlighten me? Also, is there a place I can answer this type of question without having to post? e.g. is there a good "what's up there tonight" web site? I keep following leads from search engines but haven't yet found a good source of updated info.

Thanks all,
Robert

[trick]

TRy this just south of Hobart 22Jul09 0530Hrs

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

The second bright object in the west is Jupiter. Jupiter gets to around -2, Venus is -4.5 magnitude. When they aren't close to each other Jupiter can look very bright!

Download one of the free planetarium software programs, such as Cart du Ciel or Stellarium to help you - look in the permanent links section at the top of the beginners forum to get you started, there are a number of them around.

[BobBuilder (Robert)]

Thanks for both replies - very useful! (Have been trying to respond sooner but my login wouldn't work).

We are about 50km from a city and 10km from even little towns so (after moving from Sydney) everything seems pretty bright up there!
I didn't realise Jupiter could get that bright - now I need a good telescope.

We bought one (Barska?) for $100, allegedly down from $200, but it seems pretty hopeless - very difficult to make fine adjustments, flimsy tripod, and it bends slightly at the rack & pinion joint when extended. I'll hunt around on this site for tips about what to buy next.

Thanks for the tips about the sky-viewing software by the way.
Robert