Sunrise Sighting
on Apr 28, 2003

I have a biggie. I live in Golden, CO and was driving to work this morning [Apr 28 5:30 AM] headed due east for Denver. There was a very bright object (star or planet, not airplane) at about 5 degrees above the horizon, just ahead of the sunrise. The object was bright and white in color while occasionally blinking intense red, I presume because of the atmosphere. This is obviously a planet. My question is, is this PX, Mars or Venus? Remember, I was looking east from Golden to Denver and the sun rises from the east. This object was very visible just before sunrise and shortly after. Not another star in the sky near it.

Kent, in Colorado

 

Per SkyMap, the Sun is just above the horizon at 5:30 AM and just below at 4:30 AM [Skymap and Denver are not on DST]. Mars is 85 degrees from the Sun, a full quarter turn away. Venus is above the Sun by 20 degrees and a full 30 degrees to the right also, and well into light pollution above the Sun, so Venus as the Morning Star would not be visible just ahead of sunrise and certainly not after sunrise. Where Planet X is not reported to be white, an Apr 27 report from Florida includes this for the first time, so perhaps this is a changing characteristic as Planet X gets closer. Blinking intense red is a constant characteristic of Planet X and not of Venus as the Morning Star, however. This is highly likely to be the first report of a Second Sun sighting!

Nancy

 

I also live in Colorado. I saw it. It was Venus. The coordinates for Planet X do not yet show up in Colorado till long after the sun is up and washing out all planetary [Venus] observations.

D

 

My question is whether Venus could appear red through the sky of an early sunrise. If he saw Planet X, the red persona would have had to been bent up over 20 degrees to get above the rising sun. With the coordinates dropping in Dec daily the Planet X second sun will have an increasing distance to bend to be seen on the morning horizon but ZT also says that the red persona is positioned "far afield" from the white persona.

Steve

 

Venus is about 86% full now, and rises before the sun. It’s at 12.7 degrees above the horizon at sunrise at this time. The 5 degrees could be a subjective estimate. We can see Venus for many minutes after sunrise. I did see it after sunrise several times long time ago.

Naji

 

I soon realized the bright object I saw was indeed Venus after doing some homework since it appears to the right and above the sun at 5:30 am Golden time.

Kent

4:30 AM in Denver

5:30 AM in Denver, Sun at Aries