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 Ashfield:
42.525778, -72.789413
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 are also named Ashfield.
Within Massachusetts, the name Ashfield is unique.
Beyond Massachusetts, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Montana
Dawson 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 Montana community of Ashfield [Dawson County].
Phillips County
This Ashfield is located in Phillips County and lies 1,712 miles [2,755.2 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Ashfield that is located in Franklin County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Phillips County community of Ashfield.
Nova Scotia
This Ashfield lies 620 miles [997.8 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Ashfield that is located in Franklin County.
Pennsylvania
Carbon County
This Ashfield is located in Carbon County and lies 192 miles [309 km]<2> to the southwest of the Ashfield that is located in Franklin County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carbon County community of Ashfield.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Ashfield ...
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.
Baptist Corner (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
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 Ashfield to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Ashfield and extending to:
Greenfield, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Ashfield to Greenfield, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
Boston, which is the State Capital of Massachusetts, lies 88 miles [141.6 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 334 miles [537.5 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,570 miles [8,964 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,281 miles [10,108.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,157 miles [6,690 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'
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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Ashfield 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 '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- Ashfield) 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 Ashfield 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 Ashfield. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.5258, Longitude: -72.7894
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 304.994 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 300.745 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.272 degrees.