Polaris

It's been mostly cloudy since we've been here, but tonight is a clear night, so I went outside to look at the sky, until the cold chased me inside for some hot tea. One thing that's kind of neat is that Polaris, or the north star, is quite a bit higher in the sky than it is in Lawrence. Since Polaris is almost directly over the north pole, the angle that it makes with the horizon is nearly equal to one's latitude. (There's a good diagram of why this is here.) In Lawrence, we're at about 39° N, whereas in Lyngby we're at about 55.5° N. Brenda tells me that if you hold a fist at arm's length, it subtends about 10°, so Polaris is about a fist and a half higher here. It really is noticeable.

Mars is pretty as well.