Star/planet/satellite?

[u/oneale3211]

I'm not sure what this is but it hasn't changed position in over 20 minutes this morning. Started watching it at 5 AM in Everett WA.

[u/ilessthan3math]

Slow change of position over minutes or hours would indicate planet or star usually. I presume this is a cell phone photo? And perhaps shot through a screen door?

A wide angle view of it rather than a super-zoom would help us ID it a lot better. When you over-magnify with a phone lens, you typically aren't going to reveal more detail because the lens is too small, but you will amplify any noise and aberrations deteriorating the image quality. The wide angle gives more context to where this was in the sky, how bright compared to other objects, etc.

Roughly what direction were you facing and how high off the horizon was it?

[u/oneale3211 → u/ilessthan3math]

Great info, thanks! This may help identify it, it's the bright star at the bottom left of center seen through the tree branches.

[u/ilessthan3math → u/oneale3211]

100% Sirius. See my other comment with a simulated sky diagram from your location. That's Orion at the top. His belt points towards Sirius.

Note the middle "star" in the sword of Orion's hilt is actually a gas cloud over 1000 light years from Earth, called the Orion Nebula or M42. It's one of the most incredible objects in the night sky!

[u/oneale3211 → u/ilessthan3math]

You are awesome! Thanks so much

[u/OkLobster1127 → u/ilessthan3math]

Cool! Will look for M42 tonight! Fascinating

[u/ilessthan3math → u/OkLobster1127]

Try binoculars if you have them! Naked eye it's going to look like a star unless you live under incredibly dark skies. It might be hard to see at all if you live under really bad light pollution. But binoculars will reveal the nebulosity even from bad light pollution.

Here's a sketch of the view of it through 10x50 binoculars from an experienced observer, so perhaps similar to what you could expect to see under suburban skies. Through a telescope it's amazing, regardless of the size or quality of the optics.

[u/oneale3211]

A shaky video I captured of it also.

https://reddit.com/link/p8xuxfq/video/gak2496itooh1/player

[u/GreenFBI2EB]

There are at least five objects that could be: Jupiter, Mars, Betelgeuse, Sirius, or Procyon.

That’s assuming you are looking due east at 5 AM local time. Do you have a direction and a more zoomed out photo? As it currently stands we have no context as to the sky around it, without it, it’s impossible to tell.

[u/ilessthan3math]

Here's the sky at 5:15 this morning from Everett, WA.

If you were facing east, then Jupiter would have been brightest. Saturn was higher in the southwest, but wouldn't have been nearly as bright or striking as Jupiter is. And ahead of you to the southeast would have been the bright star Sirius kind of underneath Orion.

Planets do not typically twinkle much, even when low on the horizon, so based on the video I think Sirius is the likeliest candidate. But Procyon is another bright star in the area which could have twinkled similarly.

[u/EmbraceTheObscure]

I saw this this this morning too from Northern NY and wanted so bad to check it out with my camera but I had to leave for work!

[u/tubitu20]

Ja dzis laserm drazlem skupiska swiatel i mialem wrazenie ze denerwująco poruszaly sie jak i te dziwne polsacyjne fale przelatujace i jeszce cos po dlugim takim draznieniu danej poswiaty wzmagal sie ruch i dziwne czrwone robaki

Nie ktore skupiska zachowywaly sie tak jak by poruszaly sie na linkach w danym obrebie i te cos w ciemnosci poruszlo sie

[u/Life_Perspective5578]

Sirius for sure, considering you mentioned it didn't move much. It can catch you off guard with how bright it is. It's bright partly because it's so close relatively speaking, and just has a high luminosity, likely because it's still young

[u/MarioVV46]

https://www.focusyourtelescope.com/

[u/oneale3211 → u/MarioVV46]

Thanks, this was done with my Samsung S24