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Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Ashkum, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Ashkum 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 Ashkum:
- 40.878226, -87.953067
- 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 Ashkum
- 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 Iroquois County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Iroquois County
- Since Ashkum is near Kankakee County and also Ford County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- Open the eBird sighting report for Kankakee County
- Open the eBird sighting report for Ford 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 Ashkum
Curious and Interesting Names Near Ashkum ...
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.
- Crescent City
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Dickeys
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Dickeys is located in Kankakee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickeys
- Freedville
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- Freedville is located in Iroquois County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freedville
- Irwin
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Irwin is located in Kankakee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
- Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
- Leonard
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Leonard is located in Iroquois County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leonard
- Otto
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Otto is located in Kankakee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Otto
- Pilot Center ‑ Historic
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
- Pilot Center is located in Kankakee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilot Center
- Piper City
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Sugar Island
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
- Sugar Island is located in Kankakee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar Island
How Far From Ashkum to ...
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 include the distance from a village such as Ashkum to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Ashkum and extending to:
- Watseka, which is the Seat of Iroquois County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Ashkum to Watseka, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
- Springfield, which is the State Capital of Illinois, lies 117 miles [188.3 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 593 miles [954.3 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 24 days and walking would take 34 days.
- The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,242 miles [10,045.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,979 miles [11,231.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,861 miles [7,823 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
| <1> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <2> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Ashkum) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |
| <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 Ashkum 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 Ashkum. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.8782, Longitude: -87.9531 In this case, the coordinates for Ashkum have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <5> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.648 degrees. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.432 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.008 degrees. |
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