What's that super twinkly red, blue and white star in the sky right now?

Question

i'm in a suburb outisde of cincinnati ohio and am probably facing towards northwest and in the sky is this super super twinkly glittery star thats red and white and blue, what is it? i haven't seen it before and i look at the sky every night, it wont stop twinkling....! thanks

Answer 1

Are you sure its not a jet or something?  Well it's either that or aliens, so which ever one you prefer.

Answer 2

a firework...

Answer 3

GET INSIDE!!!

IT COULD BE ALIENS

Answer 4

If it's twinkling, chances are, it's not a planet. stars twinkle because they are effectivly points of light. no mater how much you magnify a star with a telescope, it's still going to look like a point of light. because of these they are very suseptable to atmosphearic turbulence that distorts the stars image, causing it to twinkle. planets don't really do this unless they are close to the horizon and the air is exceptionaly turbulent. planetes are less suseptable to twinkling because from our point of veiw, they are thousands of times bigger then stars. in the north west may be vega, deneb or altair, though it's hard to say for sure. all those stars are blue, but the twinkling effect can make a bright star apear to be red, white or blue. (how patriotic)

Answer 5

The bright star in the northwest is probably Arcturus. The twinkliness is a function of local atmospheric conditions and is usually stronger for stars lower in the sky.

Answer 6

Using Stellarium, it's most likely the star Vega. The twinkling and color changes happen because you're looking at it through more of our atmosphere than if the star was higher in the sky.

Answer 7

All the observatories are reporting that Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye right now.  

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll...