5

I live in New England, Cape Cod to be exact.

I saw a very bright, twinkling object. I watched it for several minutes and it never moved. It was in the east just above the tree line, what might it be?

uhoh
  • 31,151
  • 9
  • 89
  • 293
Nancy
  • 51
  • 1
  • Nicely written question; all the important information is here! – uhoh Dec 18 '18 at 02:54
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of Star like light moving in the sky, what could it be? – peterh Dec 18 '18 at 07:20
  • 2
    Doesn't decribe "movement" hence not a dupe. What is missing is the exact time. From the time stamp I'd guess 02:00- 03:00 UTC or 21:00-22:00 in cape cod. – James K Dec 18 '18 at 08:54
  • 2
    @peterh these are absolutely not duplicate. It looks more like another case of "let's see what I can get closed today" rather than diligent question curation. – uhoh Dec 18 '18 at 11:41
  • 1
    @JamesK Indeed not a duplicate, and also agree with the time stamp logic. – uhoh Dec 18 '18 at 11:51
  • 1
    @uhoh Questions like this are mostly closed on the site, my goal was to rather close it as dupe than some other reason (f.e. "unclear" or similar). I also voted it up, because I like such questions. I think, not really answerable questions like "what glowing/twinkling thing did I see yesterday" should be either answered, or closed as dupe of a question having a flow diagram like "how to identify glowing/twinkling things on the sky". But, typically I am inclusionist and spare the close votes. I am now not very sure, what to do. What do you think, what should I do now? – peterh Dec 18 '18 at 22:43
  • lights-in-the-sky questions can be a challenge and I like that this site is as receptive to them as it is, and I think that some of the more zig-zagging-UFO-like ones should be closed as non-astronomical. But this question seems to be to be a model for on-topic as it describes a star-like object (twinkles, low to the horizon, doesn't move) and a geographic location. The OP forgot the time of observation, but if we assume they saw the star then asked the same evening, Sirius fits nicely. To me the new user's positive experience is important, leaving this one open doesn't damage the site, so... – uhoh Dec 19 '18 at 00:45
  • 1
    if you retract your close vote and leave a note saying so, then perhaps it won't be closed and the remaining votes will time-out. That's my thinking on this particular question. – uhoh Dec 19 '18 at 00:47

1 Answers1

3

I just did the following:

and looked in the southeast and found that the brightest star in the sky Sirius is currently only 20 degrees above the horizon. At that low altitude, and being a star (not a planet) it would definitely be bright and twinkle, and not appear to move like a plane.

It is rising, and moving diagonally to the right and up. Check back in an hour or so to confirm that if you are interested, or check in the next several days to confirm it's in the almost the same place each night.

enter image description here

enter image description here

uhoh
  • 31,151
  • 9
  • 89
  • 293