SingAstro

My daughter noticed a bright star high in the sky at about 7.50 am today (9 Feb 2010). Can anyone help to identify the object? Tried searching on SkyOrb but no luck. It was the only star visible at that time but could be seen quite clearly. Thanks

7.50am!?

elgin is from the US, so I suppose its possible for their sky to be bright at night or dark in the mornings.

Hi Elgin, welcome to Singastro. You did not indicate the bright object is due east or west. It could be either Mars or Jupiter from the Pocket Universe on my Pocket PC but then again, the timing is different as we are at the equator.
cheers

Elgin is not from the US but UK, now is winter up north, so it is short day long night. Assuming they are in London at the stated time, Saturn, Mars and Sirius were up in the sky. Saturn rose from the east for about 2 hrs, Mars was at zenith, while Sirius was about setting.

Clifford60 wrote:Elgin is not from the US but UK, now is winter up north, so it is short day long night. Assuming they are in London at the stated time, Saturn, Mars and Sirius were up in the sky. Saturn rose from the east for about 2 hrs, Mars was at zenith, while Sirius was about setting.

alamak...you're right...can't understand how I got it mixed up! haha
Thanks for the clarification, Clifford.

I am indeed from the UK, and thanks Clifford for the clarification! But I'm now living in Singapore (I should fill in my location, I realise - apologies for the confusion) and the sighting was in the vicinity of Kovan :-). The direction was approx SW. It was already quite light and I was surprised to be able to see it so clearly. I checked the following day at the same time and it was still there (so not a satellite). My money is on Sirius. Thanks all for your helpful suggestions. My daughter shows a lot of interest in astronomy and just about everything else, but her questions stretch my meagre knowledge to it's limits (isn't that the way with kids?)

Ah..so we are talking about in Singapore. I was in Kovan just now. Mars is very bright right now too but its orangy in colour.
If you can make out Orion in the vicinity of the "star" , then very likely its Sirius.

7.50am is too bright in Sg to see any stars except the Sun. If it was at 7.50pm then, it could be Jupiter which was very close to horizon around WSW.

7.50am is too bright to see stars already, in singapore. could be a weather balloon?

He saw it at the same position over 2 days, so unlikely to be a balloon.