Pole Star

The North Star or Pole Star is simply a star named Polaris that happens to live directly above the north pole of the Earth. Lucky? Yes, the South Pole has no such counterpart. So what does it do? Each night and year the North Star plays out a fascinating truth about our minor, foot planted place on this planet. Imagine a Lego man with his feet stuck to the equator of a globe facing north. His body would extend out at a right angle away from the globe and as he's stares north from his sunny spot on the equator the north star sits exactly on the horizon. As the Lego man travels north from the equator the north star would appear to rise up from the equator. When the Lego man reaches Santa's workshop located smack dab on the North Pole the pole star is now, back-breakingly high in the sky, his little yellow neck is bent at a 90 degree angle watching the stars circle around the very pinnacle of the night sky. 

Time lapse photos give us the "record" effect of stars spinning in concentric rings around the center spot. 

What about us at "mid-latitudes"? If we don't live at the equator, where the north star is 0 degrees above the horizon nor the north pole at Latitude 90 degrees north where the North Star is 90 degrees up from the horizon how to know where to look. My home in West Boylston is at a Latitude of about 42 degrees north placing the north star directly at... you guessed it 42 degrees below 90.