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 Big Cabin:
36.540256, -95.222191
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 Big Cabin
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 Craig County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
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.
Bowlin Spring (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
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 town such as Big Cabin to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Big Cabin and extending to:
Vinita, which is the Seat of Craig County, lies just to the North Northeast.
Oklahoma City, which is the State Capital of Oklahoma, lies 148 miles [238.2 km]<2> to the west southwest (WSW). If you could drive a straight line from Big Cabin to Oklahoma City, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 9 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,004 miles [1,615.8 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of two days, a buggy would take 40 days and walking would take 57 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,728 miles [10,827.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,469 miles [12,020.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,352 miles [8,613.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>
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 from Point A (ie- Big Cabin) 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 Big Cabin 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 Big Cabin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.5403, Longitude: -95.2222 In this case, the coordinates for Big Cabin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 319.282 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 316.194 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 313.422 degrees.