Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Costin, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Costin and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Costin
- 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 Costin:
- 34.583223, -78.101382
- 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 Costin
- 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 Pender County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Pender County
- Since Costin is near Sampson County and also Bladen County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
- eBird sighting report for Sampson County
- eBird sighting report for Bladen 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 Costin ...
We found two communities that share the name Costin.
Within North Carolina, the name Costin is unique.
Beyond North Carolina, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
- Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
- Illinois
- Nebraska
Curious and Interesting Names Near Costin ...
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.
- Highsmith
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast) - Ivanhoe
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west) - Long View
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest) - Piney Wood
(Less than 2 miles to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Piney Wood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Wood
- Piney Wood is located in Pender County
- Reb Kee
(5 miles [8 km] to the northwest) - Red Star Camp
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Red Star Camp have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Star Camp
- Red Star Camp is located in Pender County
- Rooks
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south) - Sparkleberry Landing
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sparkleberry Landing have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparkleberry Landing
- Sparkleberry Landing is located in Bladen County
- Still Bluff
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Still Bluff have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Still Bluff
- Still Bluff is located in Pender County
- Sunnyside
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
How Far From Costin 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 Costin to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Costin and extending to:
- Burgaw, which is the Seat of Pender County, lies 10 miles [16.1 km]<2> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Costin to Burgaw, 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.
- Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 88 miles [141.6 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 303 miles [487.6 km] to the north (N). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 18 days.
- The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,128 miles [9,862.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,816 miles [10,969.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,701 miles [7,565.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Costin. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for Pender County: www.pender-county.com/
The official website for State of North Carolina: https://www.nc.gov/
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 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 Costin 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. |
| <2> | 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- Costin) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Costin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.5832, Longitude: -78.1014 In this case, the coordinates for Costin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Costin 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 308.672 degrees. |
| <8> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.683 degrees. |
| <9> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.66 degrees. |