ScopArch wrote: 
 
Polaris is always in the north, broadly speaking the earths axis points at it, and at night the rest of the night sky appears to revolve around it. Very useful for navigation, I helped bring a little 35' yacht back from La Coruna many years ago, and the skipper was very keen to save battery power, so while crossing the emptier bits of the Bay of Biscay he turned off the nav lights and the compass light, but as we were heading north by north east it was easy to use the pole star to steer by, and much easier on the eye and the soul.
 
Best planet experience was when Mars was closest to Earth, a few years ago. We were sat on Bayards Cove looking out of the harbour entrance, in the late summer at 4.30pm having a pint. As you looked out to sea you could see Mars, in broad daylight, hanging low in the afternoon sky. Extraordinary sight - it did look very malevolent, no wonder it gained its reputation as the harbinger of war.

So, I'm lost. I look at the lttle dipper, find Polaris, and that's North? Cool! (provided I know what's up North, but at least moving in a straight line will get you somewhere)

 lunar1963 wrote: 
Rod is right. Polaris isnt that bright.
Google Sky doesn't give information on irregular events like the positions of the planets.
Venus is usually the brightest body in the sky.
Except for when Servo is traveling intercontinentally.

 hippiechick wrote: 
Those are very handy. I have a couple of them at home. They don't show the planets though since the alignments are always changing. They are great for learning the constellations.

 lunar1963 wrote: 
Yes, Venus is the very bright planet appearing near the moon lately. Polaris is up there too, but can be found as the last bit of the handle in the little dipper. Polaris is not nearly as bright. 

 lunar1963 wrote: 
When my kids were small, we had a circle in a kind of frame, that you could pick the date, and it would show the stars in the sky at that time.

 lunar1963 wrote: 
Mars does tend to have a reddish cast to it.
Jupiter is cool to look at; you can see some of it's moons with good binoculars.

 ScopArch wrote: 

But shouldn't that be in the North at least?

 lunar1963 wrote: 

i was told this about venus last week! and i didn't know you could see them so clearly, either.

 lunar1963 wrote: 
I'm thinking that might be Polaris, the North Star which according to Google Earth Sky should be overhead for you at this time.

 onlylynne wrote: 

Well, still, good catch And it must be Venus, I checked some sites... never knew you could see planets so clearly, tremendously bright. Curious now, would Mars be a red light?

Ok, first of all you need to rename this thread. You are talking about astronomy not astrology.
Astonomy is the study of the stars and planets.
Astrology is the zodiac signs.
I'm guessing that you are seeing Venus. It's bright in our southwestern skies right now.

edit: I see I'm late as usual!

 hippiechick wrote: 

I realised it just before I read your post... D'OH!

I believe you mean astronomy, the study of the stars, as opposed to astrology which is more like fortune telling.

I was never that interested in this topic, but over the past weeks I see a tremendously bright star in the southwest from my living room. (Netherlands). I read that it might be Jupiter (so not a star then, lol), but that article mentioned December last year. Any ideas? I sometimes see a much dimmer star right underneath it, or at least very close by.

Edit: hmmmm Venus?

Edit 2: That ought to be astronomy, right? wow, not my day