OK What's that Star?

[X5Dragon]

OK that may not seem like much, but in Makkah's highly (light) polluted sky the only thing even remotely visible in the sky is..well the Moon.

So um, since the forum is slow tonight I have the excuse and license to post this thread, what the hell is that?

It even has a 5 star shape (never seen this before, too bad crappy BB camera didn't capture it well), is there a planet hovering close by these days?

 

[THE_IRON_...KENYAN?]

those are all the fucks I fired into the atmosphere

 

[moot]

usually when you have high light pollution in a city setting the star is going to be something with low magnitude (v. bright) like Sirius or Rigel, but if it wasn't twinkling, it's more likely to be Venus. without time of day, direction, or where the fuck Makkah is, though, you're not giving us much to work with (and honestly this doesn't warrant its own thread).

 

[Mastadi]

Nibiru/Planet X

 

[aVocado]

A regular star, but the camera was probably shaking so it looked like that. At least that's what I think..

BB cameras are shit, after all.

 

[X5Dragon]

The star is very bright (5 arm star shape), constant whitish hue, very low on the horizon, it's about 8 pm right now (3+ GMT) and lol living in America does not give you in excuse to not know where Makkah is.

According to this website:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/ataglance

Saturday, April 28
Evenings this week sport three planet-and-star pairs. High in the south, Mars shines with Regulus to its right at dusk, lower right later. Down in the southeast, Saturn shines with Spica to its lower right. Both these pairs are now about 5° wide. Meanwhile in the west, dazzling Venus is approaching much fainter Beta Tauri (El Nath) above it. Tonight Venus and Beta Tauri are 3.5° apart. By Saturday May 5th their separation is just 0.9°.

BB cameras are shit, after all.

Amen, I need something better to capture this thingy, brb.

 

[X5Dragon]

NVM I tried capturing it with my Canon power shot but it was too far down and besides I think you need to see it with your own eyes to appreciate it. No it's not a camera thing it really is huge with 5 arms and everything. Definitely a planet (not Mars though since it ain't red).

Times like these I wish I had a telescope with me. Anyone who has night time or still didn't have it, today is a good day for star gazing it seems :)

 

[Zacchaeus]

It's a really slow airplane

 

[Matthew]

I'm just wondering why would a non-Islamic person living in America would need to know where Mecca is.

I'm also wondering how many different spellings Mecca has and if it could just fucking pick one.

 

[X5Dragon]

Well apparently since the English language has appropriated the word "Mecca" to mean a place where all sorts of people from all over go to (e.g. 5th Avenue Apple Store), the English folks have chosen to write the name of the actual city in another matter.

Also it's called general knowledge, I'm pretty sure he took World Faith/Geography/Saw TV at least once during his time in school ;)

 

[iDunno]

I know where Mecca is. I have no idea wtf Makkah is.

 

[X5Dragon]

Eh, relax people I was just poking fun at the strangely widespread stereotype that Americans don't know where countries are (or depending on the version of the joke which continent does Africa exist).

Makkah sounds more phonetically close to the real Arabic sounding and Mecca is too commercialized to be used stand alone in a sentence.

 

[Codraroll]

Sure it's not the top of a mast on a nearby mountain or something? I know the Abraj al-Bait complex is pretty much the only skyscraper in the city (as far as I know, it's the second tallest building in the world at the moment), but there could be some other guyed mast right outside the city.

That, or Venus.

 

[moot]

Also it's called general knowledge, I'm pretty sure he took World Faith/Geography/Saw TV at least once during his time in school ;)

It's called being a native English speaker so naturally I'm going to know fuck all about "regular Arabic pronunciation". You're on an english forum, use standard-acceptance names for things or we're not going to know what the hell you're talking about.

And you say "very low on the horizon" but still weren't giving direction? Directionality is everything when pinpointing cosmic bodies and a simple google search would've told you what this was without making a damn thread about it.

 

[X5Dragon]

Sure it's not the top of a mast on a nearby mountain or something? I know the Abraj al-Bait complex is pretty much the only skyscraper in the city (as far as I know, it's the second tallest building in the world at the moment), but there could be some other guyed mast right outside the city.

That, or Venus.

Actually that's the tip of my home's wall fence lol. Yeah I would have moved to an area far away from buildings but I figured it was already sinking so I wouldn't have caught it with all the mountains in the city.

I do wish that they open the deck on the Abraj though. Also, let's stick to the Venus theory, sounds more convenient.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I'm thinking its a satellite, with the human eye or camera they look like planets or stars. Also they are geosynchronous, so they stay in the same position all year.

 

[X5Dragon]

I should really buy a telescope, something that's good and can be shipped via amazon or something.

Well if it's geosynchronous then I should be able to spot it at the same location at the same time tomorrow, right? Last time I checked the planets were indeed bright in the sky by they weren't that big.

Interesting..

 

[X5Dragon]

It's a really slow airplane

Didn't know they were filming ConAir 2 so soon lol.

 

[Fatecrashers]

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

I should really buy a telescope, something that's good and can be shipped via amazon or something.

Well if it's geosynchronous then I should be able to spot it at the same location at the same time tomorrow, right? Last time I checked the planets were indeed bright in the sky by they weren't that big.

Interesting..

Usually those are the ones you notice because they are there all the time, almost menacingly. I have one right off my front porch, there all year round with the dish aimed at it. It might be a closer satellite which orbits faster, heck you might be looking at the space station (although the space station moves pretty fast actually because it is in low orbit, so it would have to be farther out).

 

[kittenmay]

But...but..why is this a thread..

 

[Codraroll]

^First and foremost because he wondered what this thing might be. A4m is "anything goes", so it's certainly a valid thread.
Second, so the rest of us can laugh at the people who don't know where/what Makkah is, and then blame "stupid Arabic spelling" when told that this really is something everybody should know.

Concerning geostationary orbit:

Geosynchronous orbit is directly above the Equator. Makkah/Mecca lies at 21 degrees north, so any satelite in that orbit would be at a rougly 69 degree angle with the horizon. In other words, almost straight up (well, at least more straight up than straight ahead). By the look of that picture, it's slightly above the horizon.
Also, geosynchronous orbit is almost 36,000 kilometres away from Earth. Almost twice as much as the diameter of the Earth. Any object up there would have to be extremely reflective to be visible from Earth.

It might actually be the ISS, which is indeed visible from Earth at some times.

Or again, Venus.

 

[Mekkah]

I believe I was highlighted

 

[Ace Emerald]

I'm pretty sure Venus is currently the brightest object in the sky, so I'd place my bet on Venus.

 

[Professor Science]

Guys
It's clearly a UFO