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 Buffington:
36.830608, -89.743139
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 six communities that share the name Buffington.
Within Missouri, the name Buffington is unique.
Beyond Missouri, we know of another six communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Georgia
Cherokee County
This Buffington is located in Cherokee County and lies 348 miles [560.1 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Buffington that is located in Stoddard County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cherokee County community of Buffington.
Indiana
Lake County
This Buffington is located in Lake County and lies 354 miles [569.7 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Buffington that is located in Stoddard County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Buffington.
Minnesota
Polk 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 Minnesota community of Buffington [Polk County].
Pennsylvania
Fayette County
This Buffington is located in Fayette County and lies 576 miles [927 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Buffington that is located in Stoddard County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Fayette County community of Buffington.
Indiana 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 Pennsylvania community of Buffington [Indiana County].
West Virginia
Wood 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 West Virginia community of Buffington [Wood County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Buffington ...
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.
Champion (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Champion have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 Buffington to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Buffington and extending to:
Bloomfield, which is the Seat of Stoddard County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<1> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Buffington to Bloomfield, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 706 miles [1,136.2 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 28 days and walking would take 41 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,509 miles [10,475.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,237 miles [11,646.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,114 miles [8,230.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Buffington) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Buffington. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.8306, Longitude: -89.7431 In this case, the coordinates for Buffington 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 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 Buffington 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 Buffington 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 315.695 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.075 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.839 degrees.