Under the North Star

This week I've been walking Danish beaches in Roskild (former capital of Denmark, originally a Viking town), Copenhagen (no beaches, just ports and canals), and Aalborg (near another old Viking town with the largest number of Viking gravestones).

After rain yesterday, the sky cleared last night and I looked up at the stars but couldn't find anything familiar.

"It's because of the full moon," I concluded, wondering what the snake-shaped stars above my head were.

Not finding Orion or anything familiar in the south, where the moon was rising, I turned to the north and saw two pairs of bright stars I didn't recognize.

Now really puzzled, I looked for the Big Dipper--and realized the snake above my head was its handle pointing directly south.

Then locating the North Star, I realized it was almost directly overhead--strange place for it to be.

I'm far north of my usual location in Los Angeles and southern Colorado--but far enough north for that star to be almost overhead? I forgot to bring a sky map with me, so I can't really get my bearings at night.

In our hotel on Aalborg's outskirts, the second floor rooms have no windows except two sky lights. At 1 am the moon shone directly in on my bed.

There was no way to close the window, so I lay there until it passed, wondering at the night sky here.