Thank you, Baker.
ASTRONOMY FUN FACT:
The North Pole Star (Polaris) will always be found at an ELEVATION (degrees) that is EQUAL to a location’s LATITUDE (degrees).
The latitude for London is 51.5 degrees North, so the altitude of the North Star will be 51.5 degrees elevation.
Diagram showing that the Pole Star’s altitude will be same as location’s latitude. London is 51.5 degrees latitude.
Stars and constellations that circle around the Pole Star in a counter-clockwise direction are called “circumpolar”. These circumpolars circle the pole star once per day. Over the course of a year, these stars can be expected at sunset and at one time of year, in the Northwest, and at another time expected in the Northeast at sunset. This is the case with the Summer Triangle asterism (DENEB, ALTAIR and VEGA). In the Summer it is seen at sunset in the North-East. In the Winter it is seen in the North-West at sunset.
This Northwest area of the sky is the area we are looking for a bright star to be to match what is seen in the WW rollercoaster pic.
We are also only interested in that portion of the Northwestern sky between the (sunset) time of 4:30pm to 10:00pm (park closure.
We are looking in a limited portion of the sky (NW) during a limited 5.5-hour time period.
Used NightSky (Timeanddate) simulations for London during the week of Christmas 2013.
During that 2013 Christmas week, from sunset to 10pm, the 3 bright stars in the Summer Triangle pass through our field of view, and two of them appear at the bearing in the Q photo. VEGA appears at the bearing (308-312) around 8pm but at an altitude of roughly 17 degrees. DENEB appears at the bearing (308-312deg) between 9:00 and 9:30pm.
Watch Ginger Baker, bangin’ the drums.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gXUHb_l-1HU
Some diagrams which may be useful in discussion about the star seen above WildeMaus in the WinterWonderland Q pic.
The target area to observe this star is small, less than 6 hours (actually 5 to 5.5hrs) from sunset to 10pm. This enables focus on a small area of night sky during that small time period. We are looking for a very bright star capable of overcoming all of the carnival lighting of Winter Wonderland.
Using the image of a clockface to describe the stars’ movement in this small area, picture the stars appearing around the 9 o’clock position at sunset and moving toward the 7 o’clock position. (Not using the clock image to tell time- just to describe where these stars are moving.) In our target area the stars are moving counter-clockwise, from West to North-west during the timeframe from 4:30pm to 10pm. The stars of the Summer Triangle asterism are the stars which are present in the area for the week of Christmas 2013. Deneb is the favorite with altitudes from 29 to 26 degrees. For elevation, that would be very near a third of the sky in elevation (from horizon to directly overhead is 90 degrees).