Large bright, red star in South/SE sky?

[Seamaster]

Hi, I have been seeing a largish bright (Jupiter kind of size & brightness) very obviously red star in the South to South East which has been moving low across from the West the last couple of weeks.

I know Mars is close right now but I didn't think it ever got that bright or that large?

Jupiter perhaps but does Jupiter look red? I mean this thing is very clearly red/orange in colour.

Perhaps as it is fairly low in the sky it is atmospheric effects causing the redness?

Any suggestions to put me out of my misery?

Perhaps it's the giant rouge planet  X Nibiru finally coming into view!!!

Edited August 31, 2018 by Seamaster

[Doc]

You can rest assured it's only Mars.

[BAZ]

What Mick said, Mars. Stunning though isn’t it.

[philjay]

Yep, Mars. Its bright because its just out of opposition and red because of its overall surface colouring. Even when not at opposition its still pretty bright due to its albedo. The other week me and Mike went to Belper dark site and we had a progression of planets across the horizon, from west to east, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and then Mars. Even though Jupiter was still bright, the red of Mars gave it a dominating feel

[Seamaster]

Thanks guys. 

Mars was my first thought but it just looked so large and bright that it caused me to doubt. 

[Seamaster]

But of of course Nibiru was a close second!!!

[Tweedledee]

Mars does look great at the moment even with the naked eye. ?

I had already gathered that Nibiru was some sort of conspiracy theory, but had never bothered wasting any time looking into it further.

Well, looking it up on Wikipedia has given me the best giggle I've had for a while, even though it worries me that a lot of people latch on to, and actually believe and spread this rubbish. ?

 

I'm amazed that previously I took it for granted that v838 Monocerotis was a fascinating variable star undergoing some cosmic violence, when really it was Nibiru all along!!! 

 

So I'll do my bit of spreading and give this link...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nibiru_cataclysm

[Seamaster]

[Seamaster]

[tuckstar]

If they do find planet nine they should call it Nibiru, that should stop all the nonsense.

[Smithysteve]

Mars has been at its best for 15 years and still appears very bright, shining like you said a ‘red beacon!’

 

The red planet’s disc, has been near to 24 arc seconds diameter, which is roughly half the apparent diameter of Jupiter, so details on the surface should be available through even modest scopes capable of 100x magnification, although a large dust storm (a global event) had engulfed the planet but this may now be showing some signs of settling down.

 

Mars was last at opposition (in May 2016), but last months was a special perihelic opposition - Mars was at its closest to the Sun, and was also really quite close to us at only 35.7 million miles!

 

This made it our closest approach since its record close opposition of Aug 2003. It will be dimmer by almost a magnitude by the end of September so enjoy it, it will be two years and a couple of months before it returns to our evening skies.

[Guest]

I haven't got a good shot of it yet. I'm hoping that it is clear over the weekend.