Mystery object in the west

I know I'm going to feel real silly for asking but......

The last couple of nights I have seen an object in the west the brightness of Venus. Only one problem.... It's been changing color from green to yellow to red to white and not necessarily in the same order at any one time. It's definitely not a plane as several blew by it during the time I was viewing. I am viewing about 45 minutes east of Detroit.


Has anyone else seen this?? or know what it is??


Mark V

Mark,

Assuming you are speaking of just after sunset--it is Venus.

A couple of reasons I say this:

Venus is very bright out to the west right now--the only way your mystery object could not be Venus is if you can also see a second very bright object--which would in fact be the real Venus, and then you would have a mystery. But you speak of seeing only one object--and that would have to be Venus.

Any bright light seen through the thicker atmosphere on the horizon will change colors--most of the time. The same thing that makes the stars twinkle (atmospheric refraction and "bad seeing") will make light refract on its way through the atmosphere. This shows as changing colors.

I hope this explains it.

Alex

Hi Mark,

I noticed the same thing here last night north of Dallas. At first I thought is was a airplane's lights, but then raelixed it was Arcturus. The time (CDT) was about the same as your location.

Pete

Hi Mark.
My brother and I noticed the samething Sunday night, about the same time frame, in Ontario Canada. He spotted a star low in the NNE that seemed to be changing colors or flashing, mostly white, green and red, sometimes yellow. We figured it was Capella and chalked it up to atmospheric conditions. It was a very clear night and we were in a dark sky area, overlooking a lake. Then we noticed Arcturus doing the samething. It was really pronounced in the binoculars, and looked pretty neat. Pat