What Is That Intensely Bright Star Next to the Moon? 21:45

[Digger]

As titled really. Super bright even from Central London. I'm assuming it is a star and not the ISS?

[poing]

Boeing 747?

[Zarkingfardwarks]

That's no star....its Venus

[demus24]

I assumed it was Jupiter

[Impasse]

Uranus.

[Digger]

Excellent. We appear to have got to the bottom of this.

[EricE]

I can confirm that the answers above are correct.

[DIW35]

Two most likely candidates will be either Jupiter or Saturn. I'm too lazy to go outside to see which. If it's really bright, it will be Jupiter; if it's just above average bright, it will be Saturn. As you describe it, I would suggest it is more likely to be Jupiter.

Edited by DIW35 on Friday 22 May 00:03

[furtive]

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-p...

[rich83]

Venus was closest to the sun at the 2 o'clock position. Jupiter at 11 o'clock further away

[Digger]

Naff mobile pic. Taken at 21:50.

[rich83]

Could be castor. Just looking in star walk. Looks like it's too far from the moon to be Venus

[Impasse]

[Digger]

Will try and take a better pic this evening.

[p1stonhead]

Its Venus from what I could work out from a star map app

Jupiter was visible too a bit up and left.

[scorp]

p1stonhead said:

Its Venus from what I could work out from a star map app

Jupiter was visible too a bit up and left.

Judging from the illumination on the moon, that second object looks too far away from the Sun to be Venus.

[kowalski655]

The Death Star on it's final attack run

[droopsnoot]

According to Stellarium it was indeed Venus in that position.

[Timmy40]

droopsnoot said:

According to Stellarium it was indeed Venus in that position.

I bet Venus gets into all sorts of positions, the little minx.

[944fan]

OP - for the future put Google Sky Map on your phone. You hold your phone in the direction of where you are looking and it will show what the starts/planets are. Its very good and costs 0.