RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Brevard County >> Tropic >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Tropic, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Tropic and the surrounding area.

  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • 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 Tropic:
    • 28.160079, -80.614174
    • 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.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Tropic
  • Bird Watching ...
    • 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 Brevard County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Brevard County
    • Since Tropic is near Osceola County and also Indian River County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Osceola County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Indian River County
  • Waymarking ...
    • 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 Tropic

Communities Also Named Tropic ...

We found four communities that are also named Tropic.

There is one other community in Florida that is also named Tropic.

Beyond Florida, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Florida ...
    • Indian River 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 Tropic [Indian River County].
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Sumter 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 Georgia community of Tropic [Sumter County].
    • Ohio
      • Morgan County
      • This Tropic is located in Morgan County and lies 803 miles [1,292.3 km]<2> to the north of the Tropic that is located in Brevard County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Morgan County community of Tropic.
    • Utah
      • Garfield County
      • This Tropic is located in Garfield County and lies 1,927 miles [3,101.2 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Tropic that is located in Brevard County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Garfield County community of Tropic.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Tropic ...

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.

How Far From Tropic to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Tropic to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Tropic and extending to:

  • Titusville, which is the Seat of Brevard County, lies 33 miles [53.1 km]<2> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Tropic to Titusville, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • Tallahassee, which is the State Capital of Florida, lies 271 miles [436.1 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 16 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 769 miles [1,237.6 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 30 days and walking would take 44 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,524 miles [10,499.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,187 miles [11,566.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,091 miles [8,193.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Tropic 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>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- Tropic) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Tropic 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 Tropic. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.1601, Longitude: -80.6142    
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.88 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.159 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.267 degrees.