Astronomy question, In seattle looking west at 7-7-08, what did I see?

Question

on the night of 7/7/08 (ish, might have been the night before) at about 3 o'clock in the morning in Seattle looking west i saw a very bright object in the sky about a third of the way up off the horizon. it wasn't twinkling, so i knew it was a planet or something. I looked at it through my telescope and saw that it was pretty much perfectly round, so i'm pretty sure its a planet. In Seattle the sky glow is really bad, its hard to see any stars, especially on that night, i could only see about maby 10, but this was extremely bright, visible well into sunrise. Was it Venus? or somthing else? thanks for any help, if i need to give more info let me know!

Answer 1

Your description fits the position of Jupiter.  

At 3 am, Venus would not have been in the West.

Presently, Venus sets a half hour after the Sun, while the sky is still too bright to make is easily visible.

Answer 2

Jupiter, like the 10,000 other inquiries on the subject. Venus cannot be that far away from the Sun.

Answer 3

Venus sticks pretty close to the Sun, so I think you were probably looking at Jupiter at that time of the night.  Venus undergoes phases like the Moon, while Jupiter doesn't, and Jupiter has 4 visible Moons while Venus has none.  And Jupiter has stripes.  This should help you identify it.  Jupiter's moons look like little nearby stars through a small telescope.