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 West Concord:
42.458427, -71.395339
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 West Concord
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 Middlesex County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found four communities that are also named West Concord.
Within Massachusetts, the name West Concord is unique.
Beyond Massachusetts, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Minnesota
Dodge County
This West Concord is located in Dodge County and lies 1,083 miles [1,742.9 km]<1> to the west northwest of the West Concord that is located in Middlesex County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dodge County community of West Concord.
New Hampshire
Merrimack County
This West Concord is located in Merrimack County and lies 54 miles [86.9 km]<1> to the north of the West Concord that is located in Middlesex County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Merrimack County community of West Concord.
North Carolina
Cabarrus County
This West Concord is located in Cabarrus County and lies 693 miles [1,115.3 km]<1> to the southwest of the West Concord that is located in Middlesex County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cabarrus County community of West Concord.
Vermont
Essex 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 West Concord [Essex County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near West Concord ...
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 that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as West Concord to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in West Concord and extending to:
Cambridge, which is the Seat of Middlesex County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from West Concord to Cambridge, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
Boston, which is the State Capital of Massachusetts, lies 18 miles [29 km] to the east southeast (ESE). The buggy would take five to six hours and walking would take just over a day.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 384 miles [618 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 15 days and walking would take 22 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,514 miles [8,873.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,222 miles [10,013.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,098 miles [6,595.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 drawn from Point A (ie- West Concord) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 West Concord 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 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 West Concord 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 West Concord. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.4584, Longitude: -71.3953 In this case, the coordinates for West Concord have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 304.162 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 299.798 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 300.672 degrees.