Something in the sky tonight? Planet not on the ecliptic?

[Windevoid]

If that really is Saturn or Venus in the western sky, I think it's 20 to 45 degrees off of the ecliptic. I mean, the sun sets more or less vertically.

 

The only planet off of the ecliptic is supposed to be Pluto, but Pluto is not visible with the naked eye (I don't think it is).

[WWLabRat]

Pluto is also not a planet...

 

Regardless of that, are you able to show how it's off from where it "should" be? And if so, how far off it really is? Is it possible that it's just from your vantage point?

[Windevoid]

Pluto is also not a planet...

 

Regardless of that, are you able to show how it's off from where it "should" be? And if so, how far off it really is? Is it possible that it's just from your vantage point?

I think it was a planet when I was in high school.

[WWLabRat]

 

From Wikipedia.org:

 

The understanding that Pluto is only one of several large icy bodies in the outer Solar System prompted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to formally define what it means to be a "planet" in 2006. This definition excluded Pluto and reclassified it as a member of the new "dwarf planet" category (and specifically as a plutoid)

 

Even if it was considered a planet, seven years ago it was reclassified as a dwarf planet. I was at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas in the middle of Basic when this was in the news.A bit off topic, that was only one of many odd bits of news from back then (another being the death of Steve Irwin).

[BearOfNH]

astrolog says on sunset 9/5, Saturn was about 2 degrees off the ecliptic. Venus, < ½ degree. No other planets in the clear blue of the western sky.

[Iggy]

I think it's 20 to 45 degrees off of the ecliptic. I mean, the sun sets more or less vertically.

 

Not usually, no. It very much depends where you are on the planet. Maybe that was the mistaken assumption.

 

The sun very rarely sets vertically.