Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Melbourne, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Melbourne and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Melbourne
- 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 Melbourne:
- 43.530388, -83.885499
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Melbourne
- 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 Saginaw County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Saginaw County
- Since Melbourne is near Bay County and also Tuscola County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Bay County
- eBird sighting report for Tuscola 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:
- Waymark.com
Communities Also Named Melbourne ...
We found twelve communities that share the name Melbourne.
Within Michigan, the name Melbourne is unique.
Beyond Michigan, we know of another twelve communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these twelve communities, eight are located in the United States and four are in Canada.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Arkansas
- California
- Florida
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Manitoba
- This Melbourne lies 844 miles [1,358.3 km]<1> to the northwest of the Melbourne that is located in Saginaw County.
- Missouri
- Nova Scotia
- This Melbourne lies 889 miles [1,430.7 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Saginaw County.
- Ontario
- This Melbourne lies 127 miles [204.4 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Melbourne that is located in Saginaw County.
- Quebec
- Tennessee
- Washington
Curious and Interesting Names Near Melbourne ...
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.
- Crow Island ‑ Historic
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crow Island have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Island
- Crow Island is located in Saginaw County
- Dice
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dice
- Dice is located in Saginaw County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Dice
- From Melbourne to Dice
- Fisherville
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fisherville
- Fisherville is located in Bay County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Fisherville
- From Melbourne to Fisherville
- Frankenlust
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frankenlust
- Frankenlust is located in Bay County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Frankenlust
- From Melbourne to Frankenlust
- Freeland
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Freeland have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeland
- Freeland is located in Saginaw County
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Freeland <4>
- Frost
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Frost. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frost
- Frost is located in Saginaw County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Frost
- From Melbourne to Frost
- Indiantown
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Indiantown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indiantown
- Indiantown is located in Saginaw County
- Lawndale
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest) - Little Killarney Beach
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Little Killarney Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Killarney Beach
- Little Killarney Beach is located in Bay County
- Salzburg ‑ Historic
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Salzburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salzburg
- Salzburg is located in Bay County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Salzburg
- From Melbourne to Salzburg
- Shields
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Shields. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shields
- Shields is located in Saginaw County
- Google driving directions:
- From your current location to Shields
- From Melbourne to Shields
- Three Churches Corner
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Three Churches Corner have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Churches Corner
- Three Churches Corner is located in Bay County
How Far From Melbourne to ...
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 Melbourne to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<6> community of Melbourne once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in Melbourne and extending to:
- Saginaw, which is the Seat of Saginaw County, lies just to the South Southwest.
- Lansing, which is the State Capital of Michigan, lies 64 miles [103 km]<1> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could walk a straight line from Melbourne to Lansing, with an average speed<7> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 478 miles [769.3 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 19 days and walking would take 28 days.
- The shortest distance<8> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,965 miles [9,599.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,702 miles [10,785.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<10>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,584 miles [7,377.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<11>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Saginaw County: www.saginawcounty.com/
The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/
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- Melbourne) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Melbourne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.5304, Longitude: -83.8855 |
| <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 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 Melbourne 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> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <5> | 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. |
| <6> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Melbourne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <7> | 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. |
| <8> | 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 Melbourne to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 311.918 degrees. |
| <10> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 308.712 degrees. |
| <11> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.17 degrees. |