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 Herpel:
35.907573, -92.026817
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.
Bluetip ‑ Historic (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bluetip have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Herpel to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Herpel and extending to:
Little Rock, which is the State Capital of Arkansas, lies 81 miles [130.4 km]<4> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from Herpel to Little Rock, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 846 miles [1,361.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 33 days and walking would take 48 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,642 miles [10,689.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,373 miles [11,865.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,251 miles [8,450.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Herpel) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Herpel. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.9076, Longitude: -92.0268 In this case, the coordinates for Herpel have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
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.
<6>
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 Herpel to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 317.113 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 313.591 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.054 degrees.