Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above
website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed
sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above,
we pass this GPS location for Belkofski:
55.088889, -162.030556
Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Belkofski to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Belkofski and extending to:
Juneau, which is the State Capital of Alaska, lies 1,062 miles [1,709.1 km]<2> to the east northeast (ENE). If you could drive a straight line from Belkofski to Juneau, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 61 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 42 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 3,892 miles [6,263.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 8 days, a buggy would take 152 days and walking would take 222 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,344 miles [10,209.7 km] and it lies to the north northwest (NNW).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,990 miles [11,249.3 km] and it lies to the north northwest (NNW).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,723 miles [9,210.3 km] and it lies to the north (N).<7>
Footnotes ...
<1>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Belkofski) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Belkofski. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 55.0889, Longitude: -162.0306 In this case, the coordinates for Belkofski have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<3>
While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>
The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Belkofski to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 14.623 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 20.692 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 355.866 degrees.