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 Van Story Hills:
Curious and Interesting Names Near Van Story Hills ...
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 included the distance from a community such as Van Story Hills to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Van Story Hills and extending to:
Raleigh, which is the Seat of Wake County, lies just to the North Northwest.
Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies just to the north northwest (NNW).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 238 miles [383 km]<2> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Van Story Hills to White House, with an average speed<3>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 14 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,103 miles [9,821.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,798 miles [10,940.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,679 miles [7,530.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
Footnotes ...
<1>
GPS Coordinates for Van Story Hills: Decimal: 35.68209, -78.606116 DDMMSS: 35° 40' 55", -78° 36' 22"
<2>
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 from Point A (ie- Van Story Hills) 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 Van Story Hills 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 Van Story Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.6821, Longitude: -78.6061 In this case, the coordinates for Van Story Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.935 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.146 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.493 degrees.