Any astronomers?

Question

Hey, i've been sitting out on my back porch the past few nights, and i've got to tell you- I've fallen in love with the stars. They give you peace to think. Anywho... a few questions:

1. I can only identify orion, is there a good program or website to help me find others? (I said good...not just any)

2. Which star is the closest to Earth?

3. There is this really bright object in the sky, much brighter than a star. (haha it's not the moon) I think it is mars...can anyone officially confirm this?

4. Are the visible stars in the sky only from this galaxy, or can we see stars from other galaxies?

Please only answer if you can back it up with facts...I appreciate this very much. If anyone can answer these, you have a new fan!!!...oh and ten points.

Answer 1

1......nasa.gov...who else?.......try www.jackstargazer.com,  Horkheimer, he is an astronomer, and he's explains things in easy terms, great for the beginner, he's goofy though       2.the sun?        3.i focused on a bright star once, it ended up being Jupiter. venus is bright, vega,etc... Mars will have a light orangey color. a first clue is, if it "winks" it's a star, the gases cause it. if it doesn't, it's a planet. at certain times of the star/planets life, it can become even brighter, or dimmer.  it's your guess as good as ours what you were actually looking at.              4.not sure.   i know you can see other galaxies, but probably not the stars as individuals. all you really need to start with is a star chart and a good pair of binoculars

Answer 2

1. dont know any programs - google it

2. the sun stupid - then one called proxima centuron or soemthing

3. thats venus if u see it in evenings or mornings

4 no we can only see a small fraction of our own galaxy.

Answer 3

At first when I had questions like that I did what not too many kids you age would do, I had gone to a library and cheched out books. And I used the help of Google and Yahoo serches to capture answers to my questions.

Well for me the best thing was library and I also used WWT (worldwide telescope) and also Google Earth Sky. These are very informational.

Well the Sun is if you want to know the other star Proxima Centauri, this star is about 4.5 light years away.

It can be Mars but my computer's enterntet is too slow for me to download WWT or Google Earth. It can also be a satallite.

All the stars that you see are form is a fraction of stars in our galaxy.

Answer 4

1.   I just google "star map" because it shows how the sky looks. Buy a current astronomy magazine and it will probably have a good star map too.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=...

2.  Like someone said, besides the sun the closest star is Proxima Centauri.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Cen...

3.  Right now Jupiter is very bright because it's directly away from the sun compared to Earth.

http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...

4.  We can only see individual stars from this galaxy, especially with the naked eye.  With the naked eye, you might be able to see a couple of other galaxies, but not the individual stars in them.  

http://www.astro.uu.nl/~strous/AA/en/ant...

Answer 5

1. better you type 'map of constellations' in yahoo/google search.

2.Sun is closest star to the earth, and besides Sun it is Proxima Centauri.

3. it can be venus too...

4.we can't see them with the naked eye , it needs a pwer telescope to see them ,because they are too faint........

Answer 6

1. stellarium.org has some good software for beginners. it rocks and is easy. be sure to set the proper location and time.

http://www.stellarium.org/

2. Proxima Centauri (trick question? the sun?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Cen...

3. again, stellarium.org ----

possiblities are mars venus jupiter antares,Spica or just about anything listed in this link above those last two I mentioned

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bri...

4. yes.

sort of. the Andromeda galaxy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_G...

It can be seen with a telescope and its completely made up of billions of stars that don't belong to us,

so, yes.

its sometimes hard to make out individual stars since they seem to cloud together.

the entire object can actually be seen by the naked eye as long as you don't look directly at it (its just the way eyes work)

all questions answered, get stellarium, you'll like it.....

any more questions?

Answer 7

1. Just google "constellation"

2. The Sun

3. Venus or the morning star and mercury as well. The atmospheres reflects too much light because of their reflective properties

4. Some of the stars that you see are from different galaxies as the closest to us is the sun. Lights can reach a vast distance in space.

Answer 8

Follow bickenbee's answers

Answer 9

2. The sun is the closest star to Earth. The second closest star is Sirius.

Answer 10

you may visit nasa.org for the information on constellations and stars. the site is very good.

the sun in the solar system is the closest star to the earth.

the most bright is sirius and the second closest is the proxima centurai.

well, depending upon the time you see, it may be the venus( it appears to be most bright in the mornings and evenings), or sirius( it appears to be the brightest star from earth).

as far as star sight is concerned, there is no restriction to which stars can you see. most of the stars we see during night time are the stars of our milky way galaxy.

however, we can even see the stars of other galaxies or even nebulas( birth place of stars) if seen through a telescope or binoculars.

you can get more of this from google earth too.

Answer 11

1) There are some star maps at http://www.frontierastro.co.uk/Maps/Maps...

2) Other than the sun, the closest star to earth is Proxima Centauri

3) Currently, the brightest object in the sky other than the Sun and Moon is Jupiter, which appears in the south east before midnight. Mars is in the west after sunset and not all that bright. Those who say it's Venus are guessing. Venus is not currently visible.

4) Other galaxies are too far away for individual stars to be seen.  These galaxies appear as hazy patches of light. All the individual stars you can see in the sky are from our galaxy.

Answer 12

2. Proxima Centauri, besides the sun of course

Answer 13

Im not an astronomer, just a really bored person.

1) you can't identify the dippers? lol jk well i couldnt find much...but this might help. its a cool sight actually: http://www.space.com/stars/

2) the sun is closest to earth

3)hmmm...thats a puzzlement. I dont think it is mars. thats kind of pinky in the sky. But it very well could be venus.

4) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?... heehee

hope this helped cure your curiousity. enjoy the stars!