Hi Thom,

If the orange star in the east was bright enough to stand out, it was probably Arcturus. It's pretty easy to tell - the Big Dipper's handle kinda points to it. I managed to catch a glimpse of that and Spica (60 degrees south of handle) late last night before the clouds rolled in.

According to my notes Castor is a nice bright double, but since the components are separated by only 2" you probably need some decent magnification to split it.

Ciao,
Matt