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 Maravilla:
34.038889, -118.164722
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 enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Los Angeles County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found one communities that share the name Maravilla.
Within California, the name Maravilla is unique.
Beyond California, there is another community also named Maravilla in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Florida
Saint Lucie County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Florida community of Maravilla [Saint Lucie County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Maravilla ...
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 that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Maravilla to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Maravilla and extending to:
Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 363 miles [584.2 km]<4> to the north northwest (NNW). If you could drive a straight line from Maravilla to Sacramento, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 21 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 15 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,288 miles [3,682.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 90 days and walking would take 130 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,566 miles [12,176.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,335 miles [13,413.9 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,324 miles [10,177.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Maravilla could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>
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.
<4>
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 from Point A (ie- Maravilla) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Maravilla. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.0389, Longitude: -118.1647 In this case, the coordinates for Maravilla 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 Maravilla 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 336.172 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 336.06 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 325.585 degrees.