Hello and thank you for your time.

I live in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan (across the river from Sault Ste Marie, Canada). My wife and I have been watching Venus and Jupiter for awhile now, and have become curios about a star that is about the 4:00 position from Jupiter. It is a bright star that blinks red even when viewed from our telescope. This star can be seen when Jupiter comes up just before dusk, so is hard to miss.
I will apologize now for the lack of technical terms, we just get enjoyment viewing the solar system.
Thank you again.

-Tabour-

Antares, heart of the Scorpion. It's a red giant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpius

Thank you for the quick reply, you have kicked up my curiosity a notch now:-)

-Tabour-

It was a favorite of mine when I was in the Navy.

Good - another future astronomer in the making!

Welcome to the board - there is no better website - on this planet at least.

Were you at sea often? If so, I bet you saw some gorgeous nighttime skies...

In the west tonight is Venus and Saturn, soon to be in conjunction - June 30th.

I was only in for a couple of years, but in that time I went around the world twice in two different directions (though probably half of those were air miles). They still teach celestial navigation because you never know when the GPS system will flake out on you; and I took it upon myself to take the extra effort to be the best celestial navigator onboard. However, don't ask me to pick out Antares or Arcturus now! But when you do it every day, you know where to look automatically; there are several certain stars that become your friends: you know their names, and you know which gap in the clouds to look for them to get that extra glimpse you need to get a good fix.

But actually, at a high altitude location in a place like Arizona, you're better off for stargazing than in the middle of the ocean wilderness. Also, the sunsets are better closer to land, than out in the middle of the ocean; though I have seen the green flash a few times!

At the link below, enter your ZIP code; then customize the star chart. Set the time and date. Choose the view N,S,E,W or up. Display or not display constelleations and their names, horizon line, etc. Click on a star, planet, etc, to get data on magnitude, distance, coordinates, etc.

http://www.wunderground.com/sky/index.asp

I saw this on the ferry tonight, it was pretty cool. Had Venus and Saturn in the west, then about SW I saw the half moon and then south-ish was Jupiter and Antares. I kinda wondered at first if Jupiter was Sirius, then I figured that it couldn't be because Orion would be next to it if it was, and that's a winter constellation.

Aw...wish I'd had the honor of answering first. Yep, Jupiter is stealing a bit of Antares' limelight. Antares is my favorite star. Remember Mars outshining Antares in 2002? They made quite the pair!

Welcome to the board, Tabour.

__________________
“I shall always be convinced that a watch proves a watchmaker, and that a universe proves a God” ~Voltaire

I am enjoying this site very much, questions I thought might sound far fetched or at the very least strange, are discussed here in great detail and make for some very enjoyable reading. Thank you all for the warm welcome, and I look forward to reading more from this site as well.

-Tabour-

If you have a question about astronomy, or any other science topic, the folks here can answer it.