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 Papago Peaks Village:
Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
Open the Waymark.com report for Papago Peaks Village
Curious and Interesting Names Near Papago Peaks Village ...
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 included the distance from a community such as Papago Peaks Village to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Papago Peaks Village and extending to:
Phoenix, which is the State Capital of Arizona, lies just to the west (W).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,970 miles [3,170.4 km]<3> to the east northeast (ENE). If you could drive a straight line from Papago Peaks Village to White House, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take three full days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 112 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 77 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,444 miles [11,980 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,209 miles [13,211.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,146 miles [9,891 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
Footnotes ...
<1>
GPS Coordinates for Papago Peaks Village: Decimal: 33.45643, -111.967090 DDMMSS: 33° 27' 23", -111° 58' 1"
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Papago Peaks Village) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>
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.
<5>
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 Papago Peaks Village 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 Papago Peaks Village. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.4564, Longitude: -111.9671 In this case, the coordinates for Papago Peaks Village have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 331.076 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 329.833 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 322.116 degrees.