Polaris

There is one photo that I thought I would never be able to take from Sri Lanka. I was thinking of going to the northern most corners just to see if it would provide a good view for this. Seems like you don't have to try that hard.

Polaris and Big Dipper. Polaris is at the dead center of the bottom margin of the photo.

Polaris and Big Dipper. Blue skies due to twilight.

The elevation you can see Polaris or the pole star is pretty simple. The star appears as an extension of the north-south axis of the earth. So if you are right at the north pole, it is directly overhead, i.e. 90⁰ from the horizon. Further you move from the north pole, for each degree in latitude, the elevation of the pole star comes down by one degree. This effectively means that your latitude is the elevation you see Polaris. If you are living in Sri Lanka the southern most tip (at Dondra Point) is at a latitude of 5⁰55' and the nothern most tip (Point Pedro) is at 9⁰49'. My choice for moving to the northern most tip was to get Polaris as high as possible from the sky to get it out of any possible land obstacle and the clouds in the horizon.

The trip to chase ISON, although was not fruitful, put me in a beach which faced north. I was trying to get my bearings I realised that I am actually facing north and the Big Dipper is on the view. I had a hunch as to which star Polaris would be but I was still a bit doubtful. The hunch proved right.

The star trail photos of Polaris are always interesting. When the entire sky spins, there is one star that stays where it is. That, is Polaris.