2 amazing stars seen by the unaided eye

[everCurious (Lynn)]

Last night (or shall I say 3.30 in the morning) I saw 2 fascinating stars (amazing considering I live in urban sydney with out polluted skies & whatnot).

1) Easily the brightest star in the sky and THE brightest & largest star I have ever seen with the naked eye (Im not exaggerating). It sported more than a mild twinkle, flashing bright white, blue & red. Surreal. Im pretty sure it wasnt an airplane since I stared at it for about 5 mins to make sure (and try to make sense of what I was seeing) & it didnt budge.

2) A coppery red star- very bright, but not twinkling at all, just slightly larger than the average star in size

Does anyone have any idea what star I may have seen?
Someone please enlighten me!

Thanks

[Terry B]

The bright red one that should have been high in the north at 3:30 am was Mars
The other I'm not sure.What direction was it?

[iceman (Mike)]

#1 sounds like Venus, but would've been just after sunset in the West.

#2 sounds like Mars.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

03:30 Sydney time?

My best bets would be:
Mars would be a little west of north and about half way up from the horizon.
Saturn in the NE and a bit higher.
Sirius almost west and fairly low down. Atmospheric effects could cause the colour changing.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The first may have been either the star Sirius or Canopus. Which are the brightest and the 2nd brightest stars in the sky. As they sink lower, close to the horizon, you are looking at them through a lot of atmospheric pollution and dust. This causes the stars light to refract, flashing red, blue and white. They are reported as UFO's all the time.

The red star, definitely Mars.

[pgc hunter]

Originally Posted by everCurious

Last night (or shall I say 3.30 in the morning) I saw 2 fascinating stars (amazing considering I live in urban sydney with out polluted skies & whatnot).

1) Easily the brightest star in the sky and THE brightest & largest star I have ever seen with the naked eye (Im not exaggerating). It sported more than a mild twinkle, flashing bright white, blue & red. Surreal. Im pretty sure it wasnt an airplane since I stared at it for about 5 mins to make sure (and try to make sense of what I was seeing) & it didnt budge.

2) A coppery red star- very bright, but not twinkling at all, just slightly larger than the average star in size

Does anyone have any idea what star I may have seen?
Someone please enlighten me!

Thanks

No.1 is Sirius. At 3.30am it is getting low, and bright stars can often show colours when twinkling paticularly at low elevations due to the refraction as the light passes through Earth's atmosphere.

No.2. is Mars. Planets generally don't twinkle, although Jupiter and Venus might appear to when close to the horizon due to their great brilliance.

[Reemul]

Hello
You should download the free "stellarium" program. It shows you what's in the sky at any given time ... abit like Google Earth for the Sky. You can set the location to where you were, and it has time shift buttons, so you can go backwards and see what was in the sky that night. Then you just click on the object to see what it is called. Very handy to have.

[omegacrux (David)]

If you have a smart-phone download Google sky map its free there's a i-thingy and android versions just hold your mobile up and it will superimpose the night sky its fairly accurate and quite handy and hello