RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Columbia County >> Canaan Center >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Canaan Center, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Canaan Center and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • 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 Canaan Center:
    • 42.386585, -73.455155
    • 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 Canaan Center
  • 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 Columbia County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Columbia County
    • Since Canaan Center is near Berkshire County and also Rensselaer County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Berkshire County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rensselaer County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Canaan Center

Communities Also Named Canaan Center ...

We found two communities that are also named Canaan Center.

Within New York, the name Canaan Center is unique.

Beyond New York, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Connecticut
      • Litchfield 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 Connecticut community of Canaan Center [Litchfield County].
    • New Hampshire
      • Grafton County
      • This Canaan Center is located in Grafton County and lies 113 miles [181.9 km]<2> to the northeast of the Canaan Center that is located in Columbia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grafton County community of Canaan Center.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Canaan Center ...

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.

How Far From Canaan Center to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Canaan Center to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Canaan Center and extending to:

  • Hudson, which is the Seat of Columbia County, lies 19 miles [30.6 km]<2> to the west southwest. If you could walk a straight line from Canaan Center to Hudson, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 hours.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest (NW). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just about two full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 305 miles [490.8 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 18 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,603 miles [9,017.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,315 miles [10,163 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,191 miles [6,744.8 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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Canaan Center 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 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Canaan Center) 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 Canaan Center 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 Canaan Center. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3866, Longitude: -73.4552    
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 305.417 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.197 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.643 degrees.