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 Goshen Hill:
34.521249, -81.563159
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.
We found one communities that share the name Goshen Hill.
Within South Carolina, the name Goshen Hill is unique.
Beyond South Carolina, there is another community also named Goshen Hill in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Alabama
Pike County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Alabama community of Goshen Hill [Pike County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Goshen Hill ...
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.
Beaver Dam (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beaver Dam have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 Goshen Hill to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Goshen Hill and extending to:
Union, which is the Seat of Union County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<4> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Goshen Hill to Union, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
Columbia, which is the State Capital of South Carolina, lies 46 miles [74 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 392 miles [630.9 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,283 miles [10,111.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,980 miles [11,233.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,860 miles [7,821.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
Footnotes ...
<1>
If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Goshen Hill could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<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>
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.
<4>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Goshen Hill) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Goshen Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.5212, Longitude: -81.5632 In this case, the coordinates for Goshen Hill 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 Goshen Hill 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 310.632 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.922 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.987 degrees.