what is the bright light in the eastern sky at @ 130am mdt?

Currently Jupiter is visible in the eastern sky late at night. But, we are able to see Jupiter every year. Think about Jupiter and Earth on a racetrack, Earth on an inside lane. Earth goes a bit faster around the sun, so we go around the track faster. As Earth goes around, it gets way ahead of Jupiter, goes around and then starts to catchup to Jupiter as it gets ready to lap Jupiter. But Jupiter has moved some, so everytime Earth laps Jupiter, the passing point has shifted along the track. When the Sun, Earth and Jupiter are all lined up, we call that opposition and Jupiter is up all night long. After we pass Jupiter and leave further and further behind, we see Jupiter for shorter and shorter time periods in the evening sky until we are on the other side of the track and the sun is now in between. As we start to catch up to Jupiter, we see it in the morning sky, at first only for very short periods just before sunrise, but longer and longer as we catch up to it to lap (opposition) it again.

Because Earth takes 1 year to go around the sun and Jupiter takes far longer, we lap Jupiter every year. And since Jupiter takes about 12 years to go around the sun once, in one year it moves about 1/12 of the way around and from Earth's perspective has shifted so that opposition occurs about 1 month later.

So right now, we are catching up to Jupiter for this year. It will rise earlier and earlier in the night. So you'll be able to see it for a couple more months.

I can see it too. Im in the central time zone. I made a few phone calls and did some digging. It turns out to be Jupiter and its moons.

It's Jupiter, if you own a pair of binoculars, take a look, you should make out the disk of th planet and the 4 galilean moons next to it

Take a picture - I'd like to see it.