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 Tuluksak:
61.099718, -160.960864
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 city such as Tuluksak to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Tuluksak and extending to:
Juneau, which is the State Capital of Alaska, lies 937 miles [1,508 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Tuluksak to Juneau, with an average speed<2>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 54 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 37 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 3,720 miles [5,986.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 8 days, a buggy would take 146 days and walking would take 212 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,951 miles [9,577.2 km] and it lies to the north northwest (NNW).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,614 miles [10,644.2 km] and it lies to the north northwest (NNW).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,307 miles [8,540.8 km] and it lies to the north (N).<6>
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 drawn from Point A (ie- Tuluksak) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Tuluksak. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 61.0997, Longitude: -160.9609
<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 Tuluksak 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 13.747 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 19.394 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 354.971 degrees.