Anteeksi jos tämä on yksinkertainen kysymys... and apologies the rest of the post is in English, my Finnish is still basic too!
The following "star" is very bright in the southern sky - even in the afterglow of sunset, it is only star that is visible. I think it is Mars, because when I tried searching, I one site said that Mars is low in the southern sky. But it doesn't look very low to me! I'm just asking, as I have never seen it so bright.
The photos are pretty poor, as they were taken with a cheap phone camera. They were taken at about the same time, just after 2200, last night and the night before. I've circled the "star" in question.
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/alloydog/bowman/20090830-220818a_tn.jpg)
30.08.2009 22:08 (http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/alloydog/bowman/20090830-220818a.jpg)
(http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/alloydog/bowman/20090831222228a_tn.jpg)
31.08.2009 22:22 (http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n136/alloydog/bowman/20090831222228a.jpg)
Lainaus käyttäjältä: alloydog - 01.09.2009, 13:25:00
The following "star" is very bright in the southern sky - even in the afterglow of sunset, it is only star that is visible. I think it is Mars, because when I tried searching, I one site said that Mars is low in the southern sky.
It looks Jupiter to me!
I think that's Jupiter.
You might want to take a look at here: http://www.earthsky.org/tonighthome/ (http://www.earthsky.org/tonighthome/) or maybe here too: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance (http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance)
The planet Jupiter is the brightest "star" in the southern sky here in Finland during the night time. Mars becomes visible only after around 02:00 and then it's visible in the eastern sky (quite bright and slightly reddish in colour). If you think Jupiter is not the star you have seen, then you may have spotted Altair (the brightest star in Aquila), but that's located much higher compared to Jupiter. It's very prominent in the southern sky during the autumn season.
From here: http://ursa.fi/extra/taivaalla/tahtikartta/ (http://ursa.fi/extra/taivaalla/tahtikartta/) you can check the current position of the sky. You can change the time below the map. Jupiter is marked with letter "J" and the Moon is "Kuu", "E" is for south.
Many thanks gents! I thought it was a bit white for mars, but never realised other planets could be so bright!
Thanks for the links - I have been trying to find a decent chart that shows the local sky, but my Finnish isn't good enough for google...
Perhaps you should consider downloading stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org/), it's an open-source planetarium program which shows you quite nicely what you can see at the sky at given time and location. Besides, it's very easy to use.
Thanks! I downloaded it to my PC, but the graphics on this old clunker don't support OpenGL (4 MB video RAM! Ooooh!)
I'll download the Windows version to my little girls PC tomorrow.
cheers