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 Port San Juan:
60.050833, -148.067500
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.
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 Port San Juan to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Port San Juan and extending to:
Juneau, which is the State Capital of Alaska, lies 496 miles [798.2 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Port San Juan to Juneau, with an average speed<2>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 29 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 20 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 3,307 miles [5,322.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 7 days, a buggy would take 130 days and walking would take 188 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,085 miles [9,792.9 km] and it lies to the north (N).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,785 miles [10,919.4 km] and it lies to the north (N).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,302 miles [8,532.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Port San Juan) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Port San Juan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 60.0508, Longitude: -148.0675 In this case, the coordinates for Port San Juan have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<2>
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.
<3>
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 Port San Juan to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 2.809 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 7.423 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 345.231 degrees.