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 Colonial Forest:
34.142656, -79.840898
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 Colonial Forest
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 Florence County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found two communities that are also named Colonial Forest.
Within South Carolina, the name Colonial Forest is unique.
Beyond South Carolina, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Tennessee
Putnam County
This Colonial Forest is located in Putnam County and lies 349 miles [561.7 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Colonial Forest that is located in Florence County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Putnam County community of Colonial Forest.
Virginia
Hanover County
This Colonial Forest is located in Hanover County and lies 281 miles [452.2 km]<1> to the north northeast of the Colonial Forest that is located in Florence County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hanover County community of Colonial Forest.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Colonial Forest ...
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.
Alligator Lake (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
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 Colonial Forest to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Colonial Forest and extending to:
Columbia, which is the State Capital of South Carolina, lies 69 miles [111 km]<1> to the west (W). If you could walk a straight line from Colonial Forest to Columbia, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take three full days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take about three full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 363 miles [584.2 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take 6 hours, a buggy would take 15 days and walking would take 21 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,224 miles [10,016.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,915 miles [11,128.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,799 miles [7,723.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Colonial Forest) 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 Colonial Forest 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 Colonial Forest. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1427, Longitude: -79.8409 In this case, the coordinates for Colonial Forest have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.649 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 304.738 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.443 degrees.