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 Oateston:
31.762109, -85.374382
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 that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Oateston to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Oateston and extending to:
Clayton, which is the Seat of Barbour County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<1> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Oateston to Clayton, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 68 miles [109.4 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take three full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 680 miles [1,094.4 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 27 days and walking would take 39 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,574 miles [10,579.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,271 miles [11,701.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,151 miles [8,289.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<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 from Point A (ie- Oateston) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Oateston to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Oateston. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.7621, Longitude: -85.3744 In this case, the coordinates for Oateston have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 312.72 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 307.939 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.113 degrees.