June 9, 2007: Looking SE by E, spotted extremely bright object in the sky @ 8-9PM CST, Venus? Space Shuttle?

Question

I live in Villa Park, IL. Friends and I were sitting out and around 9PM looking southeast by east, just above the tree line, we noticed an extremely bright object in the sky. Extremely bright and fairly good size. We didn't know if it was the spaceshuttle, Venus with the satellites around it or what? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Given your location and the direction you were looking in the sky, probably it was Jupiter. Jupiter is about as close and as bright as it ever gets right now. It would basically track through the sky with the stars during the night. A satellite or the ISS/space shuttle (they're docked right now - be looking for them as they'll be easily visible to the naked eye) will cross the sky in a matter of a minute or two. If you have your directions mixed up, you may have been seeing Venus, it is in the western sky in the evening, Jupiter is in the SE/Eastern in the evening right now.
Watch the night sky more. It's interesting.

Answer 2

Jupiter.

From heavens-above.com, in Villa Park an the 9th the ISS (docked with the shuttle, as fortitudinousskeptic said) made passes about 9:15 and 10:50 at night. Those were visible for 4 and 2 minutes, respectively.

Answer 3

Was it moving pretty fast, so that it crossed the sky in a few minutes? If so, it could have been the International Space Station. See the source for times and directions that the ISS could have been seen that night from the Chicago area.

Otherwise, if it just sat there, I would agree with most of the others that it was probably Jupiter.

Answer 4

Jupiter. I live in Illinois too. I saw the same object but I have software that tells me where everything in the sky is. (including satellites)

Answer 5

Jupiter is to the Southeast. Venus would be to the West.