Help with identifying Star next to Venus

[Flyhigh7]

In the early morning I'm seeing Venus bright in the sky maybe 20 degrees above the horizon to the east. And right next to it is another bright object appearing a little smaller than Venus. This object appears to the immediate right of Venus just below 3 oclock when seen with the bare eye. It is so close to Venus I can't match it up to any star on my star chart. Can anyone please tell me what this object is? Can't be a moon because Venus has no moons. I tried using Star View App on my eye phone but mo match there. Help! Thanks in advance.

[Juno16]

Not sure. I don’t see any bright object near Venus on Skysafari early this morning.

[Flyhigh7]

I know. Weird right! I've seen this 3 early mornings in a row from Coppell Texas at between 5 and 6 AM Central time. It's bugging the heck out of me. They are both bright objects in a sky so polluted I see only 3 or 4 other stars (naked Eye) and Jupiter High in the sky bright as always.

[messier 111]

In the early morning I'm seeing Venus bright in the sky maybe 20 degrees above the horizon to the east. And right next to it is another bright object appearing a little smaller than Venus. This object appears to the immediate right of Venus just below 3 oclock when seen with the bare eye. It is so close to Venus I can't match it up to any star on my star chart. Can anyone please tell me what this object is? Can't be a moon because Venus has no moons. I tried using Star View App on my eye phone but mo match there. Help! Thanks in advance.

this is a photo of venus taken on friday morning 15 sep 23 at 5, 52 am from Cancun
if you look at the top right there is a star or something
Does that look like what you see?

[Flyhigh7]

No, that is not what I'm seeing. I'm seeing the object at less than a 1/4 inch to the right side of Venus. Your picture makes me think it may be possible I have a problem with my eyes. I see the same thing thru 10/50 binoculars with one eye closed. Thanks for the help. I must say though that I'm surprised Venus appears so bright.

[Flyhigh7]

Ok, thanks to the picture by messier111 I suspected I had an eye problem and this morning I looked at Venus again seeing the fantom star next to it so I tried looking at it with my right eye (something I rarely do as I can't open right eye only without using left hand to close the left eye as I was left eye dominant. Turns out my only good eye is now worse than my right eye and it has a problem that prevents it from focusing on a bright object with blurring it. So sorry guys. I'm the problem here. Thanks for the help. The Administrator can delete this string.

[Graeme1858]

No problem at all!

You can add it to your experience and you will recognise it for what it is next time!

Graeme

[gregl]

Astigmatism, perhaps?

[helicon]

Could be, or a need to have cataract surgery?

[gregl]

If you do need cataract surgery, there was an article, I think in Sky And Telescope, about the issues of this and astronomy. I thought I saved the article but of course I can't find it now. Perhaps someone here has it. But there are things to think about and discuss with any ophthalmologist before having it done.

[Flyhigh7]

Thanks. You guys are smart. Turns out I do have a Cataract as well as astigmatism in both eyes but the cataract is worse in my dominant left eye which I always used with my telescope about 40 years ago. I'm still considering getting the 8" Nexstar but as gregl suggests I need to do a lot more research to determine what type of lens replacement cataract surgery or forget the surgery and maybe the telescope can correct it (wishful thinking). If I had the surgery I would prefer the focal lens replacement done with a laser and that type surgery can correct the astigmatism too but they tell me that type lens will create halos around bright objects so don't know what that would be like through a telescope. So, more research for me before I buy the telescope and if anyone can add more about this subject it will be greatly appreciated.

[Flyhigh7]

I just learned that Cataract surgery can create problems for astronomers from the link below. It's important as most people will develop cataracts as they age so I am posting this for anyone to consider before cataract surgery. I'll be continuing my research. Turns out according to this article the focal lens I prefer is NOT recommended for astronomy due to problems with diffraction. But diffraction spikes are common after cataract surgery and it creates big problems for astronomers as discussed in the article below.

http://www.jerryoltion.com/Cataracts_an ... nomers.pdf

[jrkirkham]

There is another way to enjoy astronomy.

Those that remember me from several years ago might remember that I almost gave up astronomy due to a combination of retina damage, cataracts, and astigmatism. I've had two surgeries in my right eye and I am waiting on at least a couple of surgeries in my left eye over the next few years. My eyes don't focus well. Right now as I am typing I have trouble reading the words I type. I can't see details on bright objects, like Jupiter, and I can no longer use binoculars with both eyes. When processing stars I can't tell if my stars are sharp, because everything is blurry. Yet, I've always liked astronomy.

But I found another way to enjoy the night sky. I am a camera-aided visual observer, if there is such a thing. I don't star hop anymore. I don't spend hours gathering data in an attempt to outdo my earlier pictures. I just spend a few minutes supplementing my visual log with pictures. I log what I can see with my eyes and then use the camera to catch more. Often I just capture single frames. I don't usually find a long list of targets, but I still get in several. I don't feel like I have lost that much. I'm just getting older. I can't do lots of things I could do 40 years ago, but I haven't stopped doing them or enjoying them.

At the moment I am studying double-stars and having a lot of fun learning about them. If you enjoy astronomy, don't let your eye problems keep you from enjoying the night sky. You'll find a way.

[messier 111]

I had this operation on my right eye, I put a link on a post I made on this subject.
For me it was a success all round.
The lens I got is made for infinite vision. I have no problem with it.
but it takes time for complete healing, approximately 3 to 6 months.

link = https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?t=21075

[realflow100]

I have some quite serious severe astigmatism. Naked eye or large exit pupils give absolutely attrociously shaped vertical enlongated lines instead of stars. Or even strange rotated box shaped crosses! about -2.5 in one eye. -2.25 in the other eye!
Glassses are a must for me. at age 26 if im doing anything naked eye. or wide exit pupil.
For telescope it seems I need to use an eyepiece with massive eye relief. folded down eye cups and remove the lens from my glasses and place it onto the eyepiece. then cover and shroud myself with a light-proof cloth or something of some kind.
Tricky to rotate the glasses lens the right way to minimize the astigmatism.
Its not bad enough to cause enlongated streaks at night from streetlights or anything. but its still annoying enough to make stars fuzzy indistinct and blurry.
I don't wear my glasses often otherwise in the daytime because they are so uncomfortable no matter what frames i choose or anything. I tried many pairs.
They also don't perfectly correct my vision to infinity. my eyes feel a little strained. so although the stars are sharper at night. they are just barely the slightest bit out of reach of my eyes focusing ability. I have to repeatedly defocus and refocus my eyes to relax the lenses to focus fully to infinity.
Need a new pair of glasses for naked eye observing.
Or better yet. contacts instead. Contacts would solve a lot of my problems. and would be enormously easier to use and give me the ability to use a large variety of eyepeices and binoculars too.
Binocular viewing would be massively more exciting and enjoyable with contacts and sharp vision.
My left pupil actually is slightly misshapen. Not enough to affect vision severely. but its clearly misshapen on the bottom. Slightly like a key-hole. but not severely. Very mild. Might of been slightly damaged from a football incident years ago.

Anything larger than about a 1mm exit pupil stars becoming more and more fuzzy and distorted. it is worse with larger apertures and newtonian or reflector based telescopes.

[Flyhigh7]

Hello again. Thanks to you guys it turned out that the star next to Venus was indeed my cataracts. I've had the surgery to replace the cataracts in both eyes with the Turic type lens that also corrects astigmatisms and that star next to Venus isn't there anymore. Neither is the start I saw above Jupiter. Now to replenish my funds for that 8SE. Thanks!

[JayTee]

Hello again. Thanks to you guys it turned out that the star next to Venus was indeed my cataracts. I've had the surgery to replace the cataracts in both eyes with the Turic type lens that also corrects astigmatisms and that star next to Venus isn't there anymore. Neither is the start I saw above Jupiter. Now to replenish my funds for that 8SE. Thanks!

Absolutely wonderful news. Congrats on a successful outcome to what had to be a very stressful situation. I hope you can help other members who reach out with the same or similar problems as you.

Once again, wonderful news,

[AstroBee]

Hello again. Thanks to you guys it turned out that the star next to Venus was indeed my cataracts. I've had the surgery to replace the cataracts in both eyes with the Turic type lens that also corrects astigmatisms and that star next to Venus isn't there anymore. Neither is the start I saw above Jupiter. Now to replenish my funds for that 8SE. Thanks!

Just so you realize this, the background stars that appear "beside" Venus change pretty drastically from day to day due to it's motion around the Sun. The same with Jupiter although not quite as much.
That is why they are called planets, Greek for "wanderers", because they appear to change position in the sky compared to the background stars.

[AstroBee]

Hello again. Thanks to you guys it turned out that the star next to Venus was indeed my cataracts. I've had the surgery to replace the cataracts in both eyes with the Turic type lens that also corrects astigmatisms and that star next to Venus isn't there anymore. Neither is the start I saw above Jupiter. Now to replenish my funds for that 8SE. Thanks!

Just so you realize this, the background stars that appear "beside" Venus change pretty drastically from day to day due to it's motion around the Sun. The same with Jupiter although not quite as much.
That is why they are called planets, Greek for "wanderers", because they appear to change position in the sky compared to the background stars.