Yet for all its cultural luminescence, Polaris is only the forty-eighth brightest star in the sky. It stands out because it is the brightest star in its patch of the sky. If you see two stars of similar brightness close to each other you cannot be looking at the North Star, which always appears to be the only one of comparable brightness in its immediate vicinity.
The southern side of painted objects fade faster than the northern side. I have seen this in varied locations, from footpath signs in France that had paled on one side, to bleached oil drums in the desert. Some things will show this solar effect more quickly than others. Over the course of a single day, moist dung will dry more quickly on its southern side.
Growing numbers of solar panels on roofs will be ignored by most, but they offer help to observant navigators: There is not much point in a solar panel that faces north in the northern hemisphere, so, wherever possible, they face south.
(Continued)...translucent muddy water at one end and an opaque pale green at the other. This effect can be caused by plant matter or algae near the surface of the puddle being blown to one end by a prevailing wind.
(Continued)...path, the incline and growth on the southern side of the track will cast a shadow on the southern part of the track itself. Moisture is retained, puddles last longer.
(Continued)...may be a wind direction reversal to a land breeze as the day ends and the night cool draws in. "I can smell the sea" becomes "I suspect that I know what the wind and water are doing!"
