Where is the north star or brightest star in sky?

[MrJimi]

We have been seeing this ( looks like a real bright star) in the same spot in sky for past 3 nites and is 280 degrees to us here in north Florida, does anyone else see it or know what it is?
No, this is not a joke

[woodchuckie]

Do you know Venus the planet. Also called the evening star and morning star. It's usually the first you see at dusk. 280 degrees east would be in the west north west sky. Venus is in the western sky now at sunset. 280 degrees west would be in the eastern sky. Northern star is 0 or 360 degrees.

Venus is prominent in the evening skies in May. On May 1 Venus is a little over two handspans above the western horizon an hour after Sunset. Venus starts the month between Elnath and zeta Tauri, the "horns" of Tauris the Bull. On May 17 Venus will be half a finger width from magnitude 3 Epsion Geminorum. On May 20, the thin crescent Moon is three fingerwidths to the left of Venus. With bright Castor and Pollux a handspan away, and Orion setting on the horizon to the left, this is a fine evenings sight. By the end of May, Venus will be easily observable around three handspans from the horizon an hour after sunset. Venus is also half a fingerwith from Kappa Geminorum and forms a battered line with Castor and Pollux, the brightest stars of Gemini.

[MrJimi]

Thank you very much WoodChuckie, I asked this same question on a motorcycle forum and the replies were very different, the usual what are ya drinking and all that stufff
I meant 360/0 being north, this planet is 280 degrees
Thank you very much for the well informed reply
Jim

[RonMar]

The north star(Polaris) is located by lining up the 2 stars opposite the handle of the big dipper(Ursa Major) As seen in this link. Polaris is not especially bright and would of course appear more to the north than 280 Degrees

Image:PolarisB.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[MossRoad]

MrJimi,
Here is a link to a free program that you may enjoy. It is called Starcalc. I have been using it for many years and it is perfect for anyone that wants to know what they are looking at in the night sky. Download it, install it and it sets your time and lat./long. location from the windows time setting automatically. Then you can punch in any time of day and any date and it will show you what will be in the sky and what direction it will be, etc... or you can punch in past days/times and find out what you saw yesterday.

It has a nice mirror function, so you can mirror the night sky, then print out the page. With the mirrored page in hand, you hold it in your hand, face north and then hold the paper up over your head. You look at the object in the sky that you have questions about, then glance at the paper and SURPRISE!, it is right there. Hit it with a highlighter, go back to your computer, click on the object and it will tell you what it is. Planet, star, major constellation, etc... they have pluggins for asteroids and commets, the milkyway, all kinds of neat stuff.

StarCalc Home Page [English]

[JerryG]

Moss,
Do I need to download all or almost everything on the download page?

[MossRoad]

Moss,
Do I need to download all or almost everything on the download page?

To get started, just download the first zip file. It is the program.

http://www.m31.spb.ru/StarCalc/files/sc572en.zip

I have also downloaded the solar and lunar eclpise pluggins further down the page.

[MrJimi]

Moss, I just DL your starcalc and wow, this is great and it is Venus!!
Now to learn more about this feature I'll look for eclipse feature now
Thanks
make sure ya tell J_J about this
Jim

[NewToy]

Mr J,
While wintering down in Fla this year I noticed how bright Venus was as well. It is much brighter down there than it is here in Ohio.

John

[MossRoad]

A lot of it depends on the atmosphere, your proximity to the ocean, and light pollution. For instance, when I was a kid, we could see the Milkyway from our yard on the outskirts of town. Now, you cannot see it here anymore. You have to go way out of town to get away from the light pollution. It is sad. My kids have never seen it like I saw it. Even when we were out west last summer, it was not as good as it was when I was a kid.

My dad would get out the binoculars and we'd point them up there. WOW!!! It is amazing how many stars there are that you cannot see with your naked eye. He also built a nice big reflector telescope and we would look at nebulas, rings of Saturn, craters in the moon, etc... really cool stuff.