What is bright star in eastern sky?
The answer will depend a lot on your location and time of your observations. Since the question was posted today, I guess you saw the star at least yesterday. I also assume that you saw it from the Northern America. In this case, at 8:00 pm you could see planet Jupiter in the south-east direction about 25 degrees above horizon (quite low in the sky). At 8:30 pm looking east you could see star Altair about 50 degrees high in the sky. Since Altair appears much dimmer in the sky compared to Jupiter, I’m pretty sure that you saw the great planet.
