Posted by
Hecules
15 yrs ago
There has been a very bright star in the sky for the past few weeks. Is it actually a planet? Mercury?
I'm not an expert, but the brightest "star" (well, planet) is typically Venus, followed by Mars. As I understand it Mercury is quite hard to see.
Oski
15 yrs ago
Look carefully, if you see 3 bright "stars" fairly close together, (in the next few weeks) they are Venus, Mars, and Saturn. In the next few weeks they will be very close together. The really bright one is Venus, Mars and Saturn at the moment are no brighter than common stars, but Mars is a bit reddish.
If you see only one, it is most likely Jupiter
I thought there were two tonight, one sitting immediately on top of the other, very close together. They are the only "stars" visible in the night sky, regardless of the light pollution, which made me think it was a planet, or planets. Thanks for the information.
It is wonderfull to see any star in a Hong Kong sky, I was admiring the odd one last night
The last 2 weeks have been the first time in 4 years that I've seen stars in Hong Kong. I d never seen Venus as bright.
Todge
15 yrs ago
There are also a few apps for the iPad (maybe iPhone as well not sure) that allow you to see a fairly accurate representation of the sky. The one I've got is free and moves in sympathy with where you hold the iPad - great to finding stars/planets.
Google SkyMap works well on Android.
Planets for iPhone is pretty good. It includes a 3D star map.
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