Theres a pretty good app for smart phones called sky view or something, point it up to the sky and it kind of overlays what planets, constellations etc should be in view.
I've got Sky Walk on my iPhone; the lazy man's way of identifying stuff in the sky. Pretty good, and it plays spooky music while you're looking...
Try this http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/#.VV3SXPlVhBd You can set an email up if you want, very useful when helping my son do a school project.
@snotty its not my jupiter you can all have a look at it ... venus looks particularly cool at the moment 21.45 with the cresent moon below it ...
Ha! Funny you should say that - I've been outside to photograph it! All three together. Not too good on an iphone. I'll try to post it. My skywalk thingy makes things a lot clearer (to me at least) as it shows the plane of the planets as a dotted line. Mars hiding just below the horizon...
Venus is a she, not a he. Similar size to earth. It looks very bright because it has a thick cloudy atmosphere which reflects light from the sun. Also, it is nearer the sun than us but relatively speaking, quite close to earth. If you look at it through a telescope or possibly good binoculars you can see it has phases like the moon.
A telescope would be useless, it moves too fast to actually find it. I've seen it pass overhead once and it lasts about 20 seconds. Check here for overhead passes. http://www.heavens-above.com/ I've seen Jupiter through my telescope, couldn't see any proper detail like the red spot but I could see 4 of it's moons, 2 either side. It's a weird feeling when you can see something other than the Moon and that's pretty impressive too.
Have you seen the new Nikon camera with its super zoom? It's as good if not better than my telescope! Taken with a crappy little digital camera through my telescope. My telescope. New Nikon. http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/tec...can-capture-the-moons-movement-11363989759973
I agree that using a telescope is not really an option, but it's not like it goes over like a shooting star. Sometimes it can be clearly seen for several minutes.
