Expert: Jayendra Upadhye - 11/25/2008

Question
There are four very bright lights in the southeast sky at about 630 pm in Chesapeake Va. I assume they are planets. Are they? Thanks!

Answer
Hi Mike,
As per this site, your Latitude is 36.81889 .
ref:- http://www.satelliteviews.net/chesapeake.htm .
In winter, the ecliptic touches the horizon on the south east and west respectively.

Only a few days back I saw the Galilean satellites of Jupiter late in the evening.

West-most was Venus (Very bright), followed by Jupiter (less bright).
But I did not see any other bright heavenly bodies!

If i account for the fact that the full horizon is blocked from my place of observation, may be Mercury is visible very near to the horizon, even more to the west of Venus. But this i am doing to fill in the gaps sort of, and i am unaware if Mercury is currently to be seen in the western horizon as an 'evening star'.

Regarding the 4th body, i can only surmise it would be easternmost and could be simply a star. As Saturn is even more to the east, almost in Virgo / Libra if i am not mistaken.

Saturn should be somewhere near the constellation Orion.

Check out if the 4th point is along the ecliptic, else it is just a nearby star, that happens along by chance, near the mercury Venus Jupiter combo.

regards
Jayen