What's the orange star I can see in the sky right now?

Question

Directly above the left shoulder of Orion, as I hold my closed fist maybe eight or ten inches in front of my face the distance between them is approximately from my knuckle to my wrist.

A very bright star with an orange or dirty yellow tint.

Observing with naked eye from Essex in the UK.

Time now 11:20pm.

Thursday, 24th of November.

Observation remained unchanged during a ten minute walk back from the shops.

Has a noticeable orange tint to it I've never seen before, the left shoulder of Orion shares a little of this colour that I don't recall noticing in it before either, first thought was my glasses need cleaning but other stars don't seem to share this coloration and are displaying what appears to be their normal hue, if my memory isn't completely fried

I know Mars (yes a planet not a star, I know) is supposed to have a red tint to it but I can honestly say I've never observed any noticeable tint to any object in the night sky with a casual glance with my eye before that wasn't a planes hazard lights.

First thought is pollution of some sort tinting it of course, wondering if anyone has a solid answer rather than conjecture though.

@GregMiller are you sure? can't say I've ever seen it before if it is, is it particularly close right now then, wouldn't explain the star on the left shoulder of Orion sharing some of the hue unless that's an optical effect of some sort from a strong coloured 'star' next to it or the power of suggestion at work there. — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 00:13
@GregMiller You know what, I think you're right, just Googled for some images of where Mars should be and that looks about right to me, cheers didn't realise it was pretty visible right now, going to have to go with the power of suggestion for the left shoulder of Orion .. dunno what to do with this question now, delete probably — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 00:23
@GregMiller let me rephrase that a little, I think you're definately right and thanks again. — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 00:30
@GregMiller Yep, just went and had another look, it's moved substantially, now above the right shoulder of Orion and further from it than it was previously above the left shoulder so definately a planet rather than a star (time now 12:40) .. Orion's colour looks normal to me now so that was probably just my imagination or something .. thank you again. — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 00:40
Mars makes a close approach in a few days. https://i.stack.imgur.com/TOXGB.png https://i.stack.imgur.com/2iakk.png — PM 2Ring, Nov 25 '22 at 01:02
Congrats on finally experiencing a sky in the UK clear enough to see the colour of Mars. :) Also, congrats on being a time traveller. As I write this, 11:20pm on Friday, 25th of November 2022 HASN'T HAPPENED YET. — Wyck, Nov 25 '22 at 04:20
@Pelinore Mars will not move very fast from day to day, right now less than half a degree per day. What you might be seeing is the "parallactic angle", which is an apparent rotation caused by the observer on the Earth's surface rotating around with the Earth. — Greg Miller, Nov 25 '22 at 04:36
@Wyck [facepalm] edited the date in for (supposed) clarity after my second look gone midnight, thanks for the heads up, date corrected — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 13:54
Nitpick: there is a lot of overlap, but this site is about space exploration; https://astronomy.stackexchange.com is about space objects (stars, planets, etc.) and other space phenomena. — Jacob Krall, Nov 25 '22 at 19:31
@JacobKrall fair comment, probably should have looked to see if there was one more closely relevant rather than just coming straight to the one I know. — Pelinore, Nov 25 '22 at 19:35
There are phone apps such as Sky Guide which are terrific for answering this kind of question -- hold your phone up toward Orion and it'll show you what you're looking at. — Russell Borogove, Nov 27 '22 at 17:29
@RussellBorogove Good to know don't have a smart phone myself mind — Pelinore, Nov 28 '22 at 04:56

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 25 '22 at 03:32

15

If you have a look at something like Heavens Above, Interactive star chart option, you'll see that it's Mars. Currently, Mars is in the constellation Taurus.

By chance, currently there are three reddish cosmological objects in close proximity: Betelgeuse in Orion, Aldebaran in Taurus and Mars. Mars will be the most prominent of the three. It will be slightly closer to Aldebaran than to Betelgeuse.

answered Nov 25 '22 at 03:32

Fred

13,060
4
41
78

Yep, it's definately Mars, thanks for the extra 'red' star, though l must say, it (Mars) is more a kind of orange to my eye and the others have even less of a tint than it does (one I only seem to have even noticed for the first time in relation to other stars because of Mars's presence near them) .. maybe they're red like a white horses are grey – Pelinore Nov 25 '22 at 19:45

Woody · Answer 2 · 2022-11-25T16:28:15.140

6

Betelgeuse (red giant star) is the left shoulder of Orion. Mars is in the same area, but higher in the sky.

If your object twinkles, it is Betelguese. If it doesn't, it is Mars. Stars twinkle because they are effectively point sources of light so they are magnified and minified by turbulence in the atmosphere. Planets are "discs" so their light is spread over a large enough area of turbulence that this effect is averaged out.

Dim stars all appear colorless because we can only see them using the rod receptors in our retinas. The rods do not sense red light and cannot distinguish other colors. The brightest stars can stimulate our cone receptors, and we are able to distinguish their color. For more on this, see Outer space and dark-adapted vision

edited Nov 25 '22 at 16:28

answered Nov 25 '22 at 01:08

Woody

21,532
56
146

So that's Zaphods home star, and it is red, can't say I ever noticed any substantial difference in hue to other stars before, maybe it wasn't just my imagination making it look a little orange earlier but rather the proximity of Mars prompting me to notice a subtle difference in its hue to others around it I hadn't before // but see the comments below my question, we've established it is Mars I'm seeing yes. – Pelinore Nov 25 '22 at 01:11
2

@Pelinore Dim stars look white, but it's possible to see the colours of bright stars and planets, although it can be hard for some people to see the colour of stars with the naked eye. Binoculars or a telescope can help (unless the problem is due to colour blindness). There's some info here: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/433017/123208 – PM 2Ring Nov 25 '22 at 03:20

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '22 at 17:31

6

Here's a Stellarium view from Chelmsford in Essex at 11:20pm Thursday, 24th of November, 2022 looking roughly southeast, centered on Alnilam (middle star of Orion's belt).

Based on your description, it's very likely Mars that you saw "Directly above the left shoulder of Orion" (the left shoulder of Orion being the star Betelgeuse).

answered Nov 25 '22 at 17:31

Wyck

1,584
7
17

Was already sure it was Mars, this leaves no doubt though, was a little further left (it really was 'directly' above Orion's left shoulder) but the time given was when I got in and posted so when I was looking at it was a bit before that time, and moved to be directly over the right shoulder and further from Orion an hour or so later .. was way over to the left and much much lower in the sky tonight sometime between five and six. – Pelinore Nov 25 '22 at 19:51
I think this one deserves the best answer out of the three for the screen shot, leaves absolutely no room for any doubt about what I was looking at ta. – Pelinore Nov 25 '22 at 20:03
1

@Pelinore It is pretty close to being directly over Betelgeuse. Perhaps some azimuthal (vertical) gridlines would have helped. You can compare a view with gridlines centered on Betelgeuse to one centered on Alnilam here. – Wyck Nov 25 '22 at 21:22

uhoh · Answer 4 · 2022-11-26T07:05:58.210

There are four (redish) lights! in the same general area. I took this snapshot with my phone a few nights ago.

Upper left is Mars - the brightest. Center is Betelgeuse¹, made recently famous because it's been changing brightness and some folks hoped it would go supernova. The surprising thing about this star is that we don't know how far it is! We can't use parallax because the disk of the star is so inhomogeneous that it's apparent centroid (photocenter) wobbles! Perhaps the spacecraft New Horizons can help here?

What's the orange star I can see in the sky right now?

4 Answers4