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 Sundy Place:
40.280085, -77.461376
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.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Sundy Place ...
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.
Bears Crossroads (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Big Spring. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
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 Sundy Place to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Sundy Place and extending to:
New Bloomfield, which is the Seat of Perry County, lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<4> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Sundy Place to New Bloomfield, with an average speed<5> 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.
Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 30 miles [48.3 km] to the east (E). The buggy would take just over a day and walking would take most of two days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 98 miles [157.7 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,856 miles [9,424.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,568 miles [10,570.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,444 miles [7,151.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<2>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Sundy Place) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Sundy Place. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2801, Longitude: -77.4614 In this case, the coordinates for Sundy Place have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
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.
<6>
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 Sundy Place to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.05 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.835 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.356 degrees.