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 Big Stone Colony:
45.529130, -96.474228
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 Big Stone Colony
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 Big Stone County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found one communities that are also named Big Stone Colony.
Within Minnesota, the name Big Stone Colony is unique.
Beyond Minnesota, there is another community also named Big Stone Colony in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Montana
Cascade County
This Big Stone Colony is located in Cascade County and lies 711 miles [1,144.2 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Big Stone Colony that is located in Big Stone County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cascade County community of Big Stone Colony.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Big Stone Colony ...
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 Big Stone Colony to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Big Stone Colony and extending to:
Ortonville, which is the Seat of Big Stone County, lies 15 miles [24.1 km]<1> to the south. If you could walk a straight line from Big Stone Colony to Ortonville, 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.
Saint Paul, which is the State Capital of Minnesota, lies 169 miles [272 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take about three hours, a buggy would take 7 days and walking would take 10 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,090 miles [1,754.2 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving would take over two days, a buggy would take 43 days and walking would take 62 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,295 miles [10,130.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,054 miles [11,352.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,978 miles [8,011.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 from Point A (ie- Big Stone Colony) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Big Stone Colony 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 Big Stone Colony. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.5291, Longitude: -96.4742 In this case, the coordinates for Big Stone Colony have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 320.599 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 318.857 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 312.279 degrees.