Is Mars currently highly visible in the night sky? Does it look like a double-star?

Question

For some months I have been tracking the progress of a bright two-point 'star' that has travelled slowly from just over my roof top in south east London to a position over central London. Despite the light pollution there it is still highly visible.

In answer to Dr Bob's questions - I see it at around 10 pm every night (when I put my dogs out!). I guess it would be in the West quite low on the horizon (about 30 degrees from the horizontal?). It is white like a star. Could it be Venus? If so why does it look double?

Answer 1

Can you provide the following info about the last time you saw it

* what time of night did you look?
* what direction (north, south etc - be as specific as possible)?
* how high in the sky - low to the horizon, overhead, midway?
* what colour is the star - white/blue, red, yellow?

As for Mars - at the moment it is rising (in the north east) about 1am and it stays low for the rest of the early morning until it's lost in glare with the sunrise.

If I had to guess, I'd say you were looking at Jupiter and Antares.

Jupiter is a planet - very bright and low down. Around 10:30pm it is due south.

Antares is a red star in the constellation of scorpio. Only visible in summer, also stays low the horizon and is due south around 10:30 too!

Not sure this matches in term of direction but they are a very distinctive pair - not so close you'd think they were a double star maybe but close enough and both very bright.

Answer 2

Whenever I went through long periods of not looking at the sky and knowing where the planets are, if I saw one that I wasn't sure which planet it was, I'd pull out the trusty telescope and take a peek.

Jupiter and Saturn are both very excellent viewing experiences. Mars is pretty much a red disc unless you have a great scope in great conditions. Venus is pretty obviously Venus, so I never wondered about that one.

Dr. Bob has given an excellent answer so I won't go into detail about where they all are in the sky right now, but here's your quick way to tell a planet from another:
Jupiter and Saturn are yellowish - Saturn is dimmer than Jupiter and a little more of a "dingy" color to me.
Mars is red, and can vary in brightness.
Venus is very very very bright, and always near the eastern or western horizon.

And one tell-tale sign you're looking at a planet even if you don't know the sky well enough to know "hey, there's not usually a bright star there!": stars twinkle, planets don't.

Answer 3

BTW, do you mean London in England or London in Ontario or some other London somewhere else?

Since you describe it as being over central London from your position in south-east London I presume you are looking to the north-west. I will also assume that you are looking in the early evening (or at least soon after sunset), rather than the early morning.

This sounds like Venus, which has been in that general area of the sky for much of the year to date but is now getting lower towards the horizon at sunset. It is very bright and thus able to pierce even heavily light-polluted skies. Saturn has been quite close to it in the past few days. While appreciably fainter it still may be bright enough and close enough to give you a "double star" impression, however it hasn't been particularly close to Venus until the last few weeks.

Answer 4

In my opinion, you are right. The stars in the centre of the galaxy are more closely packed, and they would seem to surround any planet. The darkest parts of the sky on such a planet would be like how we see the Milky Way from Earth - full of faint wispy light, but the rest of the sky would be full of stars, with a combined light of the Moon, or perhaps more. It's possible that some of these stars might be big and bright enough to shine during the daytime through an Earth-like atmosphere, but that would still depend on the precise location of the planet and its sun. Even as far out in the periphery as we are, there are very large and bright stars that would shine in the daytime if only we were a bit closer to them. Thank you for the mental image you have conjured up for me this morning : )

Answer 5

I suspect it is Jupiter as that is visible at the moment, i think Mars would have set by this time and furthermore it has a distinctive reddish tinge.
Something I have observed is that it often looks as if it has a small light spur radiating from it giving it an elongated appearance, this is due to the fact that it has 4 moons that are just about visible to the naked eye for those with very keen sight.
With a good pair of binoculars and a very steady hand you should be able to make them out.

Answer 6

Hey skygazer -
Mars is visible but doesn't rise till about 2am. Your double-star is probably Venus & Saturn which are highly visable in the western sky just after sunset.

Here's a good sky chart website
www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/

Answer 7

Venus is very bright in the evening sky in the West.

Later on in the South eastern sky is Jupiter.

As another contributor suggested, download the Stellarium program. It will tell you all you want to know.

Answer 8

You are most likely seeing Venus, with Saturn close by. Mars is only visible in the early morning, and is still quite faint.

Answer 9

Whenever I look at Mars it has a red color to it. It is not white, so I dont know what star you are looking at. Get a constallation map for this time of year and find which star you are looking. I am interested in knowing which one it is. Good luck.

Answer 10

No,it doesn't.But about that,I once saw a star and there were explosions.I noticed that something was circling that star.It was like 4 planets were circling the star with the speed of a comet.It is a mystery.