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Like other apps such as PeakVisor for identifying mountains, I was hoping there was an app with which I could upload a photo to identify stars in the night sky. I’m not finding one so thought I’d try here. This photo was taken at Eagle River Nature Center in Eagle River, Alaska at roughly 18:00 on December 17, 2022. enter image description here

Diane Baker
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    Are you sure you have the time/date correct.? I ask because the moon doesn't rise until after midnight (local time) at the moment – Dr Chuck Dec 18 '22 at 21:11
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    I went to in-the-sky.org's planetarium mode then set my location to Eagle River, Alaska which adjusts for both the lat/lon and local time, selected 18:00 on December 17, 2022 and indeed as Dr. Chuck points out the Moon is still well below the horizon. Can you double check the time and data of the photo? Screenshot: https://i.stack.imgur.com/CBN17.jpg – uhoh Dec 18 '22 at 21:46
  • By the way, once you sort that out, you may be able to use that website to sort out your stars. If so, please feel free to post an answer yourself. Welcome to Astronomy SE! – uhoh Dec 18 '22 at 21:48
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    Astrometry.net can identify star fields. You need to crop out things that aren't part of the sky though. I gave it a try with one piece, but it failed. You may try with other parts to see if it'll match. https://nova.astrometry.net/status/6796551 – Greg Miller Dec 19 '22 at 00:21
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    This task is called "plate solving". Get a night sky image with enough stars in it, and match it against a stars database. There should be many programs and web sites doing this. I'm currently working on my own solution, to integrate with my telescope. – Ralf Kleberhoff Dec 19 '22 at 10:14
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    Knowing roughly which direction the picture was taken (north/south/east/west) would also be very helpful. – Michael Seifert Dec 19 '22 at 19:27
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    I was facing roughly south-southeast when the photo was taken. The time is accurate since I was on a walk which started at 17:30 and ended at 18:30 local Alaska time. I tried cropping out landscape of this photo as well as another taken on the same walk. I’ll give that a try at Astronomy.net as suggested. – Diane Baker Dec 20 '22 at 03:27
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    I checked the data on the photo and it shows December 17, 2022 at 17:57 – Diane Baker Dec 20 '22 at 03:35
  • @DianeBaker okay that's interesting! Is there a chance that that's when the computer file of the photo was copied or edited, not the actual time the photo was originally taken? Did you take it yourself, or was the image given to you? It's difficult to reckon your information with Dr. Chuck and my suggestion that at this location at this date and time the Moon should be well below the horizon and not visible. – uhoh Dec 20 '22 at 23:47
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    I took the photo and that’s the accurate date and time. I was there for the Nature Center’s annual ice luminary walk. As a member, I was on the walk that started at 17:30. The tallest peak you see on the right side of the frame is Eagle Peak. I was standing north of it about half a mile from the Nature Center which is at the end of Eagle River road if you’re looking at a map of the area. That bright spot in the sky is what I was originally interested in identifying. It’s in several of the photos from that night. – Diane Baker Dec 21 '22 at 05:03
  • Oh!! Could it be lens flare from the super-bright lights at the bottom, like this? See Is this object Mars? and its answer. For each of the photos where you have a bright unidentified spot in the sky, does there happen to be a bright light at roughly the opposite location in the image (for example, if the spot is in the upper right, is there a bright light in the lower left?) – uhoh Dec 21 '22 at 06:50
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    I understand what you mean about lens flare. I don’t see that in the photos but I suppose it’s possible. Other friends that took photos that same evening have the same object in their photos. Always in exactly the same location in the sky. – Diane Baker Dec 21 '22 at 07:57
  • Hmm... Curiouser and curiouser :-) – uhoh Dec 21 '22 at 10:44

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The bright object is Jupiter. Cetus is to the left and Aquarius is to the right. Looking SSE from Eagle River on 2022-12-17 at 17:57 UTC-9, Stellarium shows:

Stellarium screenshot matching photo in question

Mike G
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    Thank you! And after this experience (my very first trying to identify anything using this forum) you have all piqued my interest in getting better photos and doing my own research with the resources provided. Thank you so much for your kindness and assistance! – Diane Baker Dec 22 '22 at 17:14