Hello everyone!

I just have two extremely n00b questions that I was hoping the wise here could help with.

My first question - when I go out on my front porch, at night, just to gaze upwards at those beautiful twinkles, for the last several days there's been one that grabs my eye. It's slightly larger than the other stars, etc... and twinkles with red and blue light in an irregular pattern along with shining white. It's position never seems to change, as I'm watching it, ie: it doesn't seem to rotate out with the other stars, and it's not a flying saucer LOL. But it is extrordinarily interesting to me, because it's so different from the other visible stars. My totally uneducated hunch is that it's a satellite. Does anyone know how I could go about checking that out? I'm sure I could locate myself with GPS and shoot an azimuth to the light from my position if needed, but I'm totally intrigued at finding out what this twinkling light is.

Second question - we know that the universe is 13+ bil. years old. So we know that almost none of the objects we see in they sky are actually there, or at least not in the positions they appear to be at. My curious question is: Is there any project, ATM, that attempts to plot a current map of the universe, adjusted for time, direction, and expansion, that would show what our universe would look like were you able to instantly transport anywhere, vs. the current apparent position of celestial bodies? And have we adjusted the views of, for instance, spiral galaxies, knowing that the light from the far side could be 100 thousand years older than the light from the leading edge? Would that not distort, in reality, the apparent shape and composition of a galaxy? Or is there something obvious I'm missing?

Again, thanks for the help and any answers. The first question I'm really anxious to find help with, the second is pure curiosity. Thanks for taking the time from your day to read my questions!

Hi, and welcome.

For your first question, well, we need a lot more info. Where are you? What time of morning do you see this thing? Which direction are you looking? My bet would be the star Sirius. It's the brightest star in th sky and will be up in the south east in the early morning. If it's low in the sky, the atmosphere will make it flicker quite a bit. You say it doesn't seem to move though. If you can stnd somplace and use a sign or fencepost or something as a marker, check its position once against the object, then again about 30 minutes later, to be sure it didn't move. Ususally satellites will have an obvious motion to them. If they are far enough out to be stationary, they are too faint to be seen.

For your second question, I'm not sure. For stars in our own galaxy, there won't really be that much difference in the positions. As for a galaxy far, far away, my guess is that it will be just about where you see it now, only further away. Tha is further away on the same line of sight. But that's just a guess.

Oh, and somewhere in this thread there will be a link to a satellite tracking website that has a name I can never seem to remember.

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Thank you very much for your kind reply! It could be Sirius - I'm in Southeast Ohio, and it's general direction is south of my position, low on the horizon. I'll try to gather some better locational info tonight, and find a common marker I can measure a true lack of movement against, and log those in tonight. I hope I've posted this thread to the right place, but I do so appreciate the help! :-)

What time are you seeing it? When can you first see it, and how long is it visible?

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Well, actually do to recent insomnia, I'm seeing it from about 12 midnight Eastern until around 3:30 to 4:00 am Eastern. I haven't checked at dusk to record when I can first see it, or checked what is the last time it is visible, but I will do so tonight :-) I'm sorry I posted with such relatively dreadful observations - I really should have been more prepared, in retrospect ;-) I will try to gather any info one should need tonight, though, if needed.

Heh, don't worry about the first post not having enough to work with. It's pretty common.

Here is that site I mentioned. Heavans-Above

It will tell you about bright satellites for the location, date, and time you request. From Cincinatti, it looks like sirius comes up about 1 AM, just about in the south east. By 4 AM it's high in the south. I can't see anything that would be low on the south at midnight.

Could it possibly be something on land? Maybe a new building with an antenna that just went up?

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An evil person would do the things I think up.

How many degrees do you suppose a galaxy can rotate in a mere 100-thousand years?

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I honestly have no idea whatsoever. I was just curious and have never heard it adressed. I don't know if it makes any difference at all - thus, I asked ;-)

Edit: There are no new landmarks up, it's not groundbased. Will be skychecking tonight to see what observations I can come back with.

Nothing wrong with asking. That's why I asked.

Galaxies aren't rigid structures, so I'm not sure it even makes sense to talk about rotation rates of the wholes. Objects within rotate at different rates, primarily depending on distance from the center, so it's a mess.

If the Sun's 360-degree travel about the Milky Way is typical, at around 225 million years per, then 100-thousand years would represent about 0.16 degrees. For what is just a loose collection of spinning stuff anyway, to me, the lag from viewing distant rotating parts just wouldn't seem to affect the appearance of the whole very much.

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Ahh. Then it seems that even were someone able to watch said star for 100 thousand years continuously, the change in position would be imperceptable to the naked eye.

Thank you sir! That actually answers not only that question, but a couple of more that were to follow

Hrm. Not going to be collecting any data tonight, thanks anyway though. The sky is too overcast - I can't find her tonight, so I shan't have any rising, setting, position, or relative motion data to share

Grr. Will keep an eye out again tomorrow night - hopefully I have something to report to the kind sirs who are trying to help me

Hrm. Second overcast night in a row. However, doing some very rough searching, it appears it would be a star in the vicinity of Canis Minor, from what the star charts show vs. my aproximation of where I saw the bright star. I can't believe that in my zeal I didn't even compare it to the constellation map. Gah!! I guess that's why people like me come here to pester people like you!! :-)

I still appreciate all of the help, and will certainly post the very limited data I will be capable of generating as soon as the skies cooperate - I just want to thank both of you again for your continuing help :-)

If it had only been Canis Major

Then we'd almost be sure it was Sirius, as Tog_ suggested. It's strikingly bright, and low to the horizon you might see some shifting colors. But that's not far from Canis Minor. One thing though, I think both are a bit below the horizon at midnight (DST) this time of year.

You know, it probably was - I'd be much more inclined to trust your intuition than mine. I tried to do estimate the reckoning as I couldn't actually observe the stars for the last two days. If it's close, I'd trust your guess is dead on I was visually trying to picture my direction, etc... while looking at the sky chart - entirely possible I was entirely off ;-) I hope I haven't wasted your time with my wondering - it is proving entirely marvelous to me :-)

I can remember the first time I saw Canopus. It was the middle of the night, over the Gulf of Mexico, and it was oxygenated blood red. I wondered what the h*ck is that. I found out it was one of the brightest stars in the sky (not as bright as Sirius!) and it only 5 or 6 degrees above the horizon ever, at that latitude. Having lived ten or twenty degrees farther north, I'd never seen it before. Very impressive.

Then it sounds like I'm in good company ;-) Strange that in 35 years of looking up I had yet to be struck so, but I am loathe to give up the naive feeling of beauty looking for her... Sirius... she sounds like a good gal ;-)

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"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher

My "aha" moment was one night at work. I looked to the south and saw the most intense red thing I've ever seen in the sky. I did some looking and found it was Antares. I had never seen color in a star before. A month or so later I had my little 4.5 inch reflector; just in time for Comet Hyukatake.

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An evil person would do the things I think up.

Northern Utah, eh? I'm in Ohio now, but spent many, many nights in Clearfield, Hooper, Roy and Layton fields in the back of a truck, just staring into space for hours. Those desert Utah skies just can't be found out East here. *sighs*

__________________
"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher

Given the timing and position I would sagest you are looking at Saturn. Sirius is higher by midnight now isn't it?

Saturn rises after Sirius--but neither is up by midnight. Sirius is quite a bit brighter than Saturn, too.

PS: Wait, things may be different in New Zealand (and, of course, they are! The OP is in Ohio USA where Sirius rises around 2am local daylight savings time, whereas in Aukland NZ, Sirius rises at 11pm local non-daylight savings time. Did I do that right? If I did, that's a pretty dramatic example of the effect of the earth's tilt.)

That'd be the area. My observing site is actually down by Utah Lake, well west fo there quite a bit. It's at the southern end of Skull Valley. The only direct lights I get are from Dugway and they are quite a ways off. Best part though is no mosquitos. None. I don't even take spray. You walk outside to get the mail in Hooper at dusk, you come back into the house 4 pound lighter and three inches bigger around.

__________________
I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.