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 Durham:
41.460376, -72.682039
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 found one communities that are also named Durham.
Within Connecticut, the name Durham is unique.
Beyond Connecticut, there is another community also named Durham in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
New York
Greene County
This Durham is located in Greene County and lies 98 miles [157.7 km]<1> to the northwest of the Durham that is located in Middlesex County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greene County community of Durham.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Durham ...
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 Durham to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Durham and extending to:
Hartford, which is the State Capital of Connecticut, lies 21 miles [33.8 km]<1> to the north (N). If you could walk a straight line from Durham to Hartford, with an average speed<3> 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.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 289 miles [465.1 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 17 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,608 miles [9,025.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,314 miles [10,161.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,190 miles [6,743.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'
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- Durham) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>
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.
<4>
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 Durham 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 Durham. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.4604, Longitude: -72.6820 In this case, the coordinates for Durham have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 305.069 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 300.653 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.739 degrees.