what is that bright star\planet? seen in south sky ,brightest object in sky ,seen nightly approx. 7_ 9 pm?

Question

i live in western ky

Answer 1

The very bright planet in the West, slightly Southwest is Venus. Saturn is nearby, but dimmer. Jupiter is much higher in the sky. Look at the following websites for star charts (they also show the planets):

http://www.heavens-above.com
http://www.astronomy.com

Also, both stars and planets twinkle. It is a misconception that planets don't twinkle, it is just a little harder to detect since the disc of the planet is bigger than the stars and so is slightly less affected by atmospheric interference.

Answer 2

Venus is not South. It is West. Near Venus is a star that looks like a regular star, but is actually Saturn. I'm sure you're not referring to Venus.

The very bright "star" that is almost due south around 8 or 9 pm is Jupiter. And it gets further west as the night goes on.

I know this just because I look at the heavens each night, and I'm aware of where the plaents are. But, you can also verify this by using a free program called Stellarium. It provides views (that you can zoom in on) that actually look the same way you would see them in a telescope or binoculars, which is very convenient for a newbie.

Try it!

Answer 3

That's the planet JUPITER. From you location it should be south-southwest between 7-9 PM (..your time..) (http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Yourtel)

Just as a point of further interest, you should be able to see an unremarkable star a little below and to the right of Jupiter...kind of an orangeish color to it. That's the star Antares, an immense red giant. Take a look at the bottom illustration on this website to get an idea of what you're actually looking at ==>http://www.co-intelligence.org/newsletter/comparisons.html

Answer 4

Around 7-8 PM, the brightest object due south is Spica, a star in Virgo. The brightest overall is Venus, which in the southwest. Then Jupiter in the southeast, currently in Scorpius.

No, scratch that. 9PM is still daylight. You're looking at Venus.

Answer 5

The planet Jupiter.

Answer 6

South is relative to where are you?
By far the brightest object is Venus at this time of the year.

Finally it would be good to know that stars twinkle, and planets do not.

Answer 7

Jupiter

Answer 8

Yep, that's Jupiter. I noticed it the other night on a walk. It was so large and bright, I knew it couldn't be anything else. ^^