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 East Cambridge:
42.366764, -71.080052
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 two communities that share the name East Cambridge.
Within Massachusetts, the name East Cambridge is unique.
Beyond Massachusetts, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Ohio
Guernsey County
This East Cambridge is located in Guernsey County and lies 567 miles [912.5 km]<1> to the west southwest of the East Cambridge that is located in Middlesex County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Guernsey County community of East Cambridge.
Vermont
Lamoille 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 Vermont community of East Cambridge [Lamoille County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near East Cambridge ...
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.
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 East Cambridge to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in East Cambridge and extending to:
Boston, which is the State Capital of Massachusetts, lies just to the east southeast (ESE).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 393 miles [632.5 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could drive a straight line from East Cambridge to White House, with an average speed<5>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 23 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 16 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,504 miles [8,857.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,211 miles [9,995.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,088 miles [6,579 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- East Cambridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in East Cambridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3668, Longitude: -71.0801 In this case, the coordinates for East Cambridge 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 East Cambridge 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>
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>
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.
<5>
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.
<6>
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 East Cambridge to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.987 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.585 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.577 degrees.