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 Union Square:
40.658714, -74.202367
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 Union Square
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 Union County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found four communities that are also named Union Square.
Within New Jersey, the name Union Square is unique.
Beyond New Jersey, we know of four communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these four communities, three are located in the United States and one is in Canada.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Massachusetts
Middlesex County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Massachusetts community of Union Square [Middlesex County].
Nova Scotia
This Union Square lies 554 miles [891.6 km]<2> to the east northeast of the Union Square that is located in Union County.
Pennsylvania
Lancaster County
This Union Square is located in Lancaster County and lies 123 miles [197.9 km]<2> to the west southwest of the Union Square that is located in Union County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lancaster County community of Union Square.
Utah
Salt Lake County
This Union Square is located in Salt Lake County and lies 1,959 miles [3,152.7 km]<2> to the west northwest of the Union Square that is located in Union County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Salt Lake County community of Union Square.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Union Square ...
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 Union Square to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Union Square and extending to:
Trenton, which is the State Capital of New Jersey, lies 42 miles [67.6 km]<2> to the southwest (SW). If you could walk a straight line from Union Square to Trenton, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take about three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 193 miles [310.6 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,704 miles [9,179.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,410 miles [10,315.9 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,287 miles [6,899.3 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'
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 Union Square 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 '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- Union Square) 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 Union Square 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 Union Square. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.6587, Longitude: -74.2024 In this case, the coordinates for Union Square have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.065 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.648 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.773 degrees.