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Object in the Western Evening Sky in February?

-- Tou | February 17, 2020

Question:

What the the object in the west sky about 30 degrees up at my location in Anderson County Texas? It was there Friday, Feb 14 and again Sunday Feb16. Observed beginning about 8 pm CST. It has five definite rings just like a bullseye, Dark core, light ring, dark ring, light ring. Very visible with naked eye and rings fully visable on IPhone photo slightly enlarged

-- Tou

Answer:

I suspect that what you were seeing was the bright planet Venus. The “ringing” structure you are seeing in your camera images is likely due to imperfections in the optics of your camera which has a hard time taking a picture of a very bright object against a very dark background. My guess is that you were seeing an Airy disk pattern, similar to that described in this article on telescope optics.

-- Jeff Mangum

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