Large 'light' in SE sky

[Jason Green]

Morning all,

Last week (1-2nd December 2011) I was posted outside whilst controlling access to a site I was working at. At around 17:30hrs as darkness had fallen I became aware of a nearly-static, bright white light in the sky to the south-east. Size-wise it must have been about three-times bigger than a typical star,. It seemed to move slightly in a triangular arc, each direction no more than twice the width of the light itself. The movement was very slow indeed, and best noticed if you leaned back, still, firmly against a wall. It was static most of the time, just moving as described every five-or-so minutes. I observed it for at least twenty minutes until I was relieved, and when I returned the sky had clouded over to obscure it completely.

Any ideas? No photo, I'm afraid.

Take care,

Jason

[artdemole]

May have been one of those horrible Chinese Lanterns.

[Adam Cheeseman]

Jupiter?

[fairplay]

Police helicopter hovering above an incident with it's searchlight on ?

Neil.

[Jason Green]

Thanks all.

It was too high and static for a Chinese Lantern, I observed it for at least twenty minutes. I think me and a colleague discounted it being any kind of plane on account of it appearing to have at least twice the elevation of a nearby aeroplane's altitude.

Jupiter's possible.

[nytecam]

Jupiter is most likely the candidate. A clue - it'll be in the same position each night at that time

[Jason Green]

Thanks. I looked on the next couple of nights but they were too cloudy. I'm elsewhere now, but will keep looking SE.

[Kayleigh]

Its a planet I saw a bright light on Wed night when I took my moon shot I was going to try to photograph it but it got cold so I came in..
So Jupiter it is..

[davedotcom]

Jupiter would have been my thought. First planet I ever identified and been in awe ever since!

Just a suggestion, but if you have a smart phone, download Google Sky Map. It's a free app and is, surprisingly, a map of the sky! Just point your phone in the direction of the star, object etc and it gives you a good idea what you're lookin at. I use it lots!

[Meta menardi]

I was watchkeeping in the South China seas many years ago, and reported a light on the horizon that was flashing green/red, and we checked it with the bins (10x50s) and marked it to see what happened. The light rose above the horizon, and we could see another three lights come up. The colouration was so odd, we really were at a loss to think what it was. We had just about decided to call the Old Man, when a further light came up and we realised we were looking at Orion. The point being that strange colours and possible movements can be caused by strange atmospheric conditions, and fool (I use the word advisably in our case) even people who spend 4 hours a day, and sometimes more, watching the horizon and the sky.