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 Gratiot:
38.622274, -90.281503
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 three communities that are also named Gratiot.
Within Missouri, the name Gratiot is unique.
Beyond Missouri, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Michigan
Wayne County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Gratiot [Wayne County].
Ohio
Licking County
This Gratiot is located in Licking County and lies 440 miles [708.1 km]<2> to the east northeast.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Licking County community of Gratiot.
Wisconsin
Lafayette County
This Gratiot is located in Lafayette County and lies 273 miles [439.4 km]<2> to the north.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lafayette County community of Gratiot.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Gratiot ...
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 that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Gratiot to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Gratiot and extending to:
Jefferson City, which is the State Capital of Missouri, lies 102 miles [164.2 km]<2> to the west (W). If you could drive a straight line from Gratiot to Jefferson City, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 6 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take three full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 712 miles [1,145.9 km] to the east (E). Driving would take just about two full days, a buggy would take 28 days and walking would take 41 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,440 miles [10,364.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,175 miles [11,547 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,055 miles [8,135.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Gratiot 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 . 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.
<2>
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- Gratiot) 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 Gratiot 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 Gratiot. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.6223, Longitude: -90.2815 In this case, the coordinates for Gratiot have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 316.127 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 312.816 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.689 degrees.