I live in New Berlin (a "suburb" of Milwaukee), and I'm facing west. There's a bright star that's twinkling (variable star?) .. what is it?
Aeger, your answer was quite irrelevant
Does it seem to twinkle when you look at it?
Anonymous
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If it is slightly orange, that's Arcturus. It is not a variable star, See if you can see the handle of the Big Dipper, The arc of the handle of the Big Dipper "arcs to Arcturus. See if you can see the whole skinny kite shape of the constellation Bootes with the two smaller stars just beneath Arcturus.
marlies
In the west? Also Saturn is still standing there for a few days, low above the horizon. The twinkling is mainly because the dense atmosphere layers close to the horizon causes a twinkling for all bright stars there.
Anonymous
A star twinkles. If it doesn't, it's generally a satellite.
It's really hard to identify sometimes, specially if you've got any eye problem (such as myopia). BUT, if you've got a telescope, you'll see that stars also glow in different colours (red, blue, yellow, etc.) while satellites and other objects glow (usually) in white.
But the clue point is that they DO twinkle.