Jel Coward wrote:
>About 3 weeks ago I was looking south-ish and fairly low in the sky (I
>guess an elevation of about 30 degrees) I noticed a bright star that was
>twinkling red, green, yellow and white. It was stationary (well seemed
>to move about the same as the rest of the stars through the
>evening/night) - and I have seen it since although less bright. I was
>not the only observer of this star.
Sorry if someone has already replied along similar lines, but I only
just noticed the thread and had deleted the earlier posts.
What time of night was it? At around 7.00pm, Jupiter or Saturn (can't
remember which) is fairly low in the sky towards the south-west.
Planets don't typically twinkle though, so I suspect that you were
looking at Sirius, in the otherwise indistinct constellation of Canis
Minor, which is low in the south-south-east by around 9.00-10.00pm.
The 3 stars apparently in a line, which form the "belt" of the well
known and very distinctive constellation of Orion (which can be found
by looking up and to the right of Sirius), "point" more or less to
Sirius, so that's a good way of confirming if that's what you're
seeing.
Sirius is easily the brightest star in the night sky - most of the
planets aren't even as distinct.
Cheers
Chris Wright
Field Technical Manager, CompuData Research Ltd
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