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 Blue Point:
38.542548, -88.489216
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 four communities that share the name Blue Point.
There is one other community in Illinois which is also named Blue Point.
Beyond Illinois, we know of another three communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, three are located in the United States and two are in Canada.
Communities Located In Illinois ...
Effingham County
This Blue Point is located in Effingham County and lies 41 miles [66 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Blue Point that is located in Wayne County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Effingham County community of Blue Point.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Maine
Cumberland County
This Blue Point is located in Cumberland County and lies 1,003 miles [1,614.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Blue Point that is located in Wayne County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cumberland County community of Blue Point.
New York
Suffolk County
This Blue Point is located in Suffolk County and lies 834 miles [1,342.2 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Blue Point that is located in Wayne County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Suffolk County community of Blue Point.
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 Blue Point.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Blue Point ...
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.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Enterprise. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
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 community such as Blue Point to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Blue Point and extending to:
Fairfield, which is the Seat of Wayne County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<1> to the south southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Blue Point to Fairfield, with an average speed<6> 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 105 miles [169 km] to the northwest (NW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 6 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 617 miles [993 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 25 days and walking would take 35 days.
The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,376 miles [10,261.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,107 miles [11,437.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,985 miles [8,022.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Blue Point) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Blue Point. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.5425, Longitude: -88.4892 In this case, the coordinates for Blue Point have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 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 Blue Point 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>
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.
<5>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>
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.
<7>
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 Blue Point to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.957 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.46 degrees.
<10>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 309.872 degrees.