What is the bright, colorful star in the night sky tonight?

Given your location and time, the star is either Arcturus or Vega. My hunch would be Vega because of its brightness.

I really wish people unfamiliar with the sky wouldn't make wild guesses at answers to questions like this. One person has answered "Alpha Centauri," a star which is never visible from Arizona. Another answered "Sirius," which is in the southwestern sky, 180° around the horizon from the northeastern sky, which is where the questioner saw this star. Cut it out, please!

there is not any man or woman vivid celeb that is continually contained in the evening sky, because the Earth rotates once each and every 24 hours, and rounds the solar once ever 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. So the celebs are in no way interior an same position from evening to nighttime. If, like maximum human beings, you do not pay a lot interest to the celebs, you probable doesn't note how the celebs and planets change from hour to hour and from evening to nighttime. So your "brightest celeb" might want to be everybody of a few dozen vivid stars seen maximum nights, or, even extra in all probability, a glittery planet like Venus or Jupiter. it would want to also be the international area Station, which now outshines each and every thing except the solar and Moon. there is one celeb that is continually contained in the sky contained in the northern hemisphere, Polaris, the Pole celeb, although that is a touch insignificant 2d importance celeb, about the fiftieth brightest celeb contained in the sky.

It helps to know where you are, what time you're looking, and if you can describe how far above the horizon, as well as in what direction. I'll assume you're in the US.

If you're correct about the direction, I'd say Deneb, or possibly Vega, depending on how close they are to the horizon. The lower they are and the more turbulent the atmosphere, the more they scintillate and show different colours. If it was more above you, then maybe Arcturus.

EDIT: I hope it's still there : )

If it's to the east of the bear, then it appears to be Arcturus, which my chart shows to be quite high in the sky at that time. If it's closer to the ENE horizon, it's Vega, but the colour description of red says Arcturus.

This question is really improbably. First of all,we would have to know where you live to know the coordinates of your cardinal directions. I live in China, so that star would most likely be sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky because it is closest to our galaxy in light years.

my answer tells me that the 80 year old genius who took astronomy probably don't know his self and i said its a alien war ship lol

im gonna say alpha centauri