RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maine >> Androscoggin County >> Turner Center >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Turner Center, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Turner Center and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • 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 Turner Center:
    • 44.271520, -70.219116
    • 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 Turner Center
  • 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 Androscoggin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Androscoggin County
    • Since Turner Center is near Oxford County and also Kennebec County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Oxford County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Kennebec County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Turner Center

Curious and Interesting Names Near Turner Center ...

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.

How Far From Turner Center to ...

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 Turner Center to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Turner Center and extending to:

  • Auburn, which is the Seat of Androscoggin County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Turner Center to Auburn, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
  • Augusta, which is the State Capital of Maine, lies 21 miles [33.8 km] to the east (E). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 511 miles [822.4 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just over a day, a buggy would take 20 days and walking would take 29 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,395 miles [8,682.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,109 miles [9,831.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 3,985 miles [6,413.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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- Turner Center) 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 Turner Center 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 Turner Center. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.2715, Longitude: -70.2191       In this case, the coordinates for Turner Center have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 303.153 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 298.976 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 299.163 degrees.