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 Spafford:
42.804299, -76.264855
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.
We found two communities that are also named Spafford.
Within New York, the name Spafford is unique.
Beyond New York, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Minnesota
Jackson County
This Spafford is located in Jackson County and lies 961 miles [1,546.6 km]<1> to the west of the Spafford that is located in Onondaga County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of Spafford.
Ohio
Shelby County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Ohio community of Spafford [Shelby County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Spafford ...
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 include the distance from a community such as Spafford to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Spafford and extending to:
Syracuse, which is the Seat of Onondaga County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Spafford to Syracuse, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take five to six hours.
Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 127 miles [204.4 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 8 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 272 miles [437.7 km] to the south (S). Driving would take four to five hours, a buggy would take 11 days and walking would take 16 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,701 miles [9,174.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,421 miles [10,333.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,296 miles [6,913.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'
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- Spafford) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
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 Spafford 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.
<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 Spafford 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 Spafford. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.8043, Longitude: -76.2649 In this case, the coordinates for Spafford have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.095 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.155 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.753 degrees.