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 Park Forest:
30.480190, -91.074271
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 parish-by-parish basis. We have selected East Baton Rouge Parish as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found seven communities that share the name Park Forest.
Within Louisiana, the name Park Forest is unique.
Beyond Louisiana, we know of another seven communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Alabama
Mobile County
This Park Forest is located in Mobile County and lies 172 miles [276.8 km]<1> to the east of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mobile County community of Park Forest.
California
San Mateo County
This Park Forest is located in San Mateo County and lies 1,836 miles [2,954.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Mateo County community of Park Forest.
Florida
Hillsborough County
This Park Forest is located in Hillsborough County and lies 545 miles [877.1 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Park Forest.
Georgia
Clayton County
This Park Forest is located in Clayton County and lies 447 miles [719.4 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clayton County community of Park Forest.
Douglas County
This Park Forest is located in Douglas County and lies 437 miles [703.3 km] to the east northeast of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Douglas County community of Park Forest.
Illinois
Cook County
This Park Forest is located in Cook County and lies 783 miles [1,260.1 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Park Forest that is located in East Baton Rouge Parish.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cook County community of Park Forest.
Missouri
Platte County
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 Missouri community of Park Forest [Platte County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Park Forest ...
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.
Bird (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bird have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 Park Forest to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Park Forest and extending to:
Baton Rouge, which is the State Capital of Louisiana, lies just to the west southwest (WSW).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 984 miles [1,583.6 km]<1> to the northeast (NE). If you could drive a straight line from Park Forest to White House, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 56 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 39 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,877 miles [11,067.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,587 miles [12,210.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,463 miles [8,791.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
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 from Point A (ie- Park Forest) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Park Forest. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.4802, Longitude: -91.0743 In this case, the coordinates for Park Forest 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 Park Forest 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 parish. 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>
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.
<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 Park Forest to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 315.993 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 311.565 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.534 degrees.