As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in The Commons at Valley Forge, we use the following websites to find information relevant to The Commons at Valley Forge and the surrounding area.
Weather ...
Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
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 The Commons at Valley Forge:
40.113000, -75.487100
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 The Commons at Valley Forge
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 Chester County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
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 The Commons at Valley Forge
Curious and Interesting Names Near The Commons at Valley Forge ...
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 The Commons at Valley Forge to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in The Commons at Valley Forge and extending to:
West Chester, which is the Seat of Chester County, lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the south southwest. If you could walk a straight line from The Commons at Valley Forge to West Chester, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take five to six hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take nearly four hours.
Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 74 miles [119.1 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take most of three days and walking would take 5 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 117 miles [188.3 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,781 miles [9,303.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,487 miles [10,439.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,364 miles [7,023.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- The Commons at Valley Forge) 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 The Commons at Valley Forge 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 The Commons at Valley Forge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.1130, Longitude: -75.4871 In this case, the coordinates for The Commons at Valley Forge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.881 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.484 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.565 degrees.