what is the bright star near the moon tonight?

Answer 1

Venus

Answer 2

It's the planet Jupiter.

Here's a good resource:

http://skytonight.com/observing/ataglance

Why is everyone answering Mars or Venus???? Where are you getting your information? Because you're all wrong, I'm afraid.

Venus is currently visible in the early morning, not in the evening. Mars sets very early, is relatively dim right now, and was not near the Moon when this question was asked.

Added by Edit: Good point below: if it's reddish, it's the star Antares.

Answer 3

I would like to say that Mars could not possibly look as big as the Moon, when it is at its closest at the end of the month,

Mars will be 34 million miles away. The Moon will be less than a quarter of a million miles away, ie Mars is approx 140 times further away,

These are the radii of the two bodies:
Mars 3390.0 kilometres
Moon 1737.1 kilometres
i.e. Mars is twice the radius and the area of its disk will be only four times that of the Moon's (pi*r^2) if you ignore the distances involved,

It will be like comparing the apparent size of a gobstopper in your hand with the apparent size of a tomato 140 yards away. The tomato will look tiny in comparison.

Their being similar in size is an urban legend without any scientific basis to it,

Answer 4

It is possible you might be seeing Mars, normally I would say Venus.
The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history.
The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.
Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide.
At a modest 75-power magnification...
Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.

By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30 a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history.

Answer 5

That, my friend, would be Mars. This month the Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.

The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky.

Answer 6

I have to disagree with everyone. Alpha-Scorpius, more commonly known as Antares, is the bright star near (to the East of) the moon tonight. Jupiter is also very close (on the west side), and might appear as a star to you. Mars and Venus aren't remotely close tonight. There's a sky-map link below.

Answer 7

The moon moves through the sky during the night in the same way as the sun does during the day because of the earth's spin. So by the time I read this it moved from the position you saw it, and as i don't know where you are writing from , due to parallax errors, there is no way of knowing what star you saw.

Answer 8

It must be Jupiter.

I am baffled by all the comments about Mars though. It is actually nowhere near the Earth at the moment and is rather a challenge to see this month.

The comments about it having its closest approach to Earth on the 27th of August would be correct if this was 2003! However it is 2006 according to my calendar.

Answer 9

If you are referring to a reddish bright star, slightly east of the moon on the evening of 3 Aug 2006, it is the star Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpio.

If you are referring to the bright 'star' to the northwest of the moon, it would be the planet Jupiter.


See:
http://stardate.org/nightsky/almanac/

Answer 10

Venus is often called the evening star and is often quite noticeable. It is, however, not a star but one of the near planets in the solar system