What planet was in the SE sky Saturday night at 10:00PM?

[Tim K]

I borrowed a high end spotting scope and pointed it at the brightest object in the sky tonight. It was in the SE sky at roughly 35° above the horizon at 10:00 PM. I could see at least 4 moons. Which planet was it, and how did you figure it out?

[Irving]

Google yields this:
http://stardate.org/nightsky



Stargazing Information



The tight grouping of Venus, Mars, Saturn, and Spica ends its spectacular run this month. All four are low in the western sky at nightfall as September begins, but Saturn drops from sight early in the month. Mars and Venus are still in the sky by month's end, but they shine for only a little while before dropping below the horizon. By that time, however, the night sky's next-brightest object, the planet Jupiter, is climbing skyward in the east, and will shine brilliantly throughout the night.





This Week's Stargazing Tips

September 11, 2010


Venus, the “evening star,” lines up to the lower right of the crescent Moon early this evening. The planet Mars is about the same distance to the upper right of Venus. It is fairly bright, but it can be tough to spot through the twilight.



So sounds like Jupiter? Probably the one I was looking at last weekend. I was just using my eyes though.

It got me thinking about learning the constellations and how to use them to navigate. (I'm terrible with directions).

[Hoosier]

It was Jupiter. Uranus was very close, but is too dark to see. I use SkyGazer software for the iPhone, it uses your location via gps and the time to produce the sky you're seeing. Easy to use some reference constellations (like Cassiopeia) to figure out what everything else is.

H.