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 West Portland:
45.454841, -122.732597
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 West Portland
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 Multnomah County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found one communities that are also named West Portland.
Within Oregon, the name West Portland is unique.
Beyond Oregon, there is another community also named West Portland in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
New York
Chautauqua County
This West Portland is located in Chautauqua County and lies 2,134 miles [3,434.3 km]<1> to the east of the West Portland that is located in Multnomah County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Chautauqua County community of West Portland.
Curious and Interesting Names Near West Portland ...
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 & 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 West Portland to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in West Portland and extending to:
Salem, which is the State Capital of Oregon, lies 38 miles [61.2 km]<1> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could walk a straight line from West Portland to Salem, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two 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 2,349 miles [3,780.3 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take 5 days, a buggy would take 92 days and walking would take 134 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,920 miles [11,136.7 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,682 miles [12,363 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,795 miles [9,326.1 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- West Portland) 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 West Portland 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 West Portland. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.4548, Longitude: -122.7326 In this case, the coordinates for West Portland have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 341.093 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 342.578 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.162 degrees.