Seeing Venus with the Naked Eye - Light Pollution

[Hawksteinman]

I live in a light polluted area, and the last few weeks I have been walking down my street to see one very bright point of light. Other than the moon, it was the only astronomical object I could see with the naked eye, as well as occasionally a few fainter points. I was wondering what this was, so I looked on a website to see where the objects are in the sky from where I live, and Venus was at that exact point.

Was I looking at Venus? I thought it couldn't be since it seemed to stay in exactly the same position in the sky for at least 5 or 6 weeks.

 

[Borg]

Probably. http://www.space.com/33619-visible-planets-guide.html

 

[Hawksteinman]

Probably. http://www.space.com/33619-visible-planets-guide.html

Thanks for the website. It was (approximately) 10 to 20 degrees to the West from the full moon in January, and about the same number of degrees to the South.

 

[Hawksteinman]

According to Brian Cox on Twitter, it was Venus

https://twitter.com/ProfBrianCox/status/815996403881222144?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

 

[amarante]

Another cool software you can check to confirm it: Stellarium , its free, open source, and works in windows, mac and linux.

You can set your location, time, adjust light pollution... really useful =)