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 Sylmar:
34.299364, -118.459005
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 three communities that are also named Sylmar.
Within California, the name Sylmar is unique.
Beyond California, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Maryland
Cecil County
This Sylmar is located in Cecil County and lies 2,347 miles [3,777.1 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Sylmar that is located in Los Angeles County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cecil County community of Sylmar.
Ontario
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ontario community of Sylmar.
Pennsylvania
Chester County
This Sylmar is located in Chester County and lies 2,347 miles [3,777.1 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Sylmar that is located in Los Angeles County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chester County community of Sylmar.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Sylmar ...
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.
Bouquet Junction (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
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 Sylmar to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Sylmar and extending to:
Los Angeles, which is the Seat of Los Angeles County, lies 21 miles [33.8 km]<1> to the southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Sylmar to Los Angeles, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of a day.
Sacramento, which is the State Capital of California, lies 340 miles [547.2 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 14 days and walking would take 20 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,298 miles [3,698.3 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 90 days and walking would take 131 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,556 miles [12,160.2 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 8,325 miles [13,397.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,318 miles [10,167.8 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>'
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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sylmar) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Sylmar 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.
<3>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Sylmar 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 Sylmar. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.2994, Longitude: -118.4590
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 336.453 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 336.419 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 325.76 degrees.