Pre-dawn Venus, I think

[elleng]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. If you were looking northeast, that's what it was.

Mercury, and I don't know if that is currently visible, is much closer to the sun and not that bright. It's tough to see.

[elleng]

2. Looking south east-ish,

as dawn thought of breaking @ 5:41 a.m.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Then it wasn't Venus.

It's August, so the sun rises in the northeast. Jupiter or Mars, maybe? A star?

Hey, I think I know what you were looking at. In August, we begin the see the constellations of winter. You might have been looking at Aldebaran. That's to the southeast at dawn now. Can you see the Pleiades?

A plane will be illuminated by sunlight, so it will appear yellowish. A star will be bluish-white.

[DarthDem]

3. Definitely Venus

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are in the evening sky at this point. Also, bright pre-dawn or dusk "star" in the sun's direction almost always means Venus.

And great picture!

[elleng]

6. Thanks. Thought so, but didn't catch later/closer to sun-rise.

ONE of my bedroom windows, and has looked east for as long as I (and it) have been here. I did look for others, at that hour, but this bright thing was the only thing visible.

SADLY, gonna have storms tonight and into the morning, so FULL Moon won't be visible, and will/would be moving westerly from the south.

Moon not forecast to rise until after 7:30 p.m, and to set @@ 4 a.m.

[usonian]

5. Sky Safari says:

Venus to the NE, Sirius to the SE. You should see both. Just before sunrise. Everything else is a LOT dimmer.



Any earlier, Sirius is not visible. I think the time is an hour off, even though I set DST. Go figure.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. After I posted, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was Sirius too.

It's late enough in the year that Sirius is getting visible in the pre-dawn sky.

Sirius is due south at midnight on New Year's Eve.

Sirius is due south at 6:00 p.m. on April 1.

Sirius is due south at noon on July 1.

Sirius is due south at 6:00 a.m. on October 1.

I've changed my vote to Sirius. Aldebaran and the Pleiades are much higher in the sky now.

[DarthDem]

8. Yeah, this is probably right

I missed the more specific directional cues. Sirius generally looks about as bright as Jupiter.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. In the DC area, Jupiter transits at about 3:00 a.m. right now.

That means it's as high up as it's going to get, and as far south as it's going to get. It's unmistakable.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. I went out this morning, Thursday, August 18, 2022, at 5:26 a.m.

The moon was straight up. Jupiter was "ahead" of it, already into the western half of the night sky. The Pleiades and Aldebaran were "near" the moon, a little to the east. The moon will rise tonight at the same time that the Pleiades and Aldebaran rise.

Orion was already well up. Rigel was easy to spot. Maybe that's what you saw. Sirius was barely above the southeastern horizon.

{edited, after going out early Friday morning}

The Pleiades and Mars were "near" the moon. Aldebaran was still in the eastern half of the sky.

[elleng]

11. GREAT!

I saw NOTHING @ 5:26 a.m., but did catch the moon 'early' in it's ascent, around 2; will post pic.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Friday morning, 3:25 a.m.

Mars and the moon were close to each other. The Pleiades were near both of them. Aldebaran trailed to the east. I didn't see Orion up yet, but there are trees in the way.

[elleng]

13. Must have been cloudy here tho said 'clear,' saw only maybe a star or so @ 4 a.m., no moon!