i don't know..mira? (APOD 21 Feb 2007)

lpxmd · Post by **lpxmd** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:56 pm

I live in NC and lately I've seen this really bright star in the..west (i don't know how to put this into technical terms)

I saw the APOD today and i was wondering if this was Mira? The star is flickering..a lot.

cheech · Post by **cheech** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:25 pm

a lot depends on what time of night you're looking to the west. right now venus stands out in the west after sunset. a sharp eye will spot mercury too.

iamlucky13 · Post by **iamlucky13** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:06 pm

The article says that Mira is currently a magnitude 2 in brightness. The brightness scale is set up so that smaller numbers are brighter. 2 is easily visible to the naked eye, but not enough to get noticed over the other stars. It's most likely you are seeing Venus, which has a magnitude of around -4 and is in a good position to see right now.

If you hover your mouse cursor over the image on that date, it will show the outline of the constellation constellation Cetus. Go back out tonight and see if you can spot the constellation. Mira is near the bottom.