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 Old Salem:
35.147923, -80.792571
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 Old Salem
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 Mecklenburg County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found four communities that are also named Old Salem.
Within North Carolina, the name Old Salem is unique.
Beyond North Carolina, we know of four communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Alabama
Monroe County
This Old Salem is located in Monroe County and lies 455 miles [732.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Old Salem that is located in Mecklenburg County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monroe County community of Old Salem.
Tennessee
Franklin County
This Old Salem is located in Franklin County and lies 308 miles [495.7 km]<1> to the west of the Old Salem that is located in Mecklenburg County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Franklin County community of Old Salem.
Texas
Bowie County
This Old Salem is located in Bowie County and lies 791 miles [1,273 km]<1> to the west of the Old Salem that is located in Mecklenburg County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bowie County community of Old Salem.
Newton County
This Old Salem is located in Newton County and lies 816 miles [1,313.2 km] to the west southwest of the Old Salem that is located in Mecklenburg County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Newton County community of Old Salem.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Old Salem ...
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.
Bishops Ridge (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
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 Old Salem to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Old Salem and extending to:
Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 128 miles [206 km]<1> to the east northeast (ENE). If you could drive a straight line from Old Salem to Raleigh, with an average speed<2>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 331 miles [532.7 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 13 days and walking would take 19 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,221 miles [10,011.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,920 miles [11,136.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,799 miles [7,723.2 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Old Salem) 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 Old Salem 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 Old Salem. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.1479, Longitude: -80.7926 In this case, the coordinates for Old Salem have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.193 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.508 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.508 degrees.