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 Western Heights:
35.830416, -80.274218
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 Western Heights
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 Davidson County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found one communities that are also named Western Heights.
Within North Carolina, the name Western Heights is unique.
Beyond North Carolina, there is another community also named Western Heights in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Florida
Hillsborough County
This Western Heights is located in Hillsborough County and lies 557 miles [896.4 km]<1> to the south southwest of the Western Heights that is located in Davidson County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Western Heights.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Western Heights ...
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 & 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 Western Heights to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Western Heights and extending to:
Raleigh, which is the State Capital of North Carolina, lies 91 miles [146.5 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Western Heights to Raleigh, with an average speed<2>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 most of three days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 276 miles [444.2 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 16 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,169 miles [9,928 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,869 miles [11,054.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,748 miles [7,641.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Western Heights) 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 Western Heights 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 Western Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.8304, Longitude: -80.2742 In this case, the coordinates for Western Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.89 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.261 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.097 degrees.