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 Hearthstone:
35.847651, -78.576947
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 Hearthstone
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 Wake County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found four communities that are also named Hearthstone.
Within North Carolina, the name Hearthstone is unique.
Beyond North Carolina, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Georgia
Muscogee County
This Hearthstone is located in Muscogee County and lies 427 miles [687.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Hearthstone that is located in Wake County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Muscogee County community of Hearthstone.
Ohio
Montgomery County
This Hearthstone is located in Montgomery County and lies 405 miles [651.8 km]<1> to the northwest of the Hearthstone that is located in Wake County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Montgomery County community of Hearthstone.
South Carolina
Sumter County
This Hearthstone is located in Sumter County and lies 167 miles [268.8 km]<1> to the southwest of the Hearthstone that is located in Wake County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sumter County community of Hearthstone.
Texas
Harris County
This Hearthstone is located in Harris County and lies 1,069 miles [1,720.4 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Hearthstone that is located in Wake County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harris County community of Hearthstone.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Hearthstone ...
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 Hearthstone to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Hearthstone and extending to:
Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies just to the southwest (SW).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 226 miles [363.7 km]<1> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Hearthstone to White House, with an average speed<2>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take nearly four hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 13 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 9 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,094 miles [9,807.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,790 miles [10,927.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,671 miles [7,517.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 from Point A (ie- Hearthstone) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
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.
<3>
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 Hearthstone 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 Hearthstone. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.8477, Longitude: -78.5769 In this case, the coordinates for Hearthstone have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.915 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.147 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.427 degrees.