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 Westwood Hills:
34.008486, -81.093428
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 Westwood Hills
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 Lexington County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found seven communities that are also named Westwood Hills.
Within South Carolina, the name Westwood Hills is unique.
Beyond South Carolina, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Georgia
Clarke County
This Westwood Hills is located in Clarke County and lies 135 miles [217.3 km]<1> to the west of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clarke County community of Westwood Hills.
Kansas
Johnson County
This Westwood Hills is located in Johnson County and lies 825 miles [1,327.7 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Johnson County community of Westwood Hills.
Massachusetts
Worcester County
This Westwood Hills is located in Worcester County and lies 760 miles [1,223.1 km]<1> to the northeast of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Worcester County community of Westwood Hills.
North Carolina
Vance County
This Westwood Hills is located in Vance County and lies 217 miles [349.2 km]<1> to the northeast of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Vance County community of Westwood Hills.
Wilkes County
This Westwood Hills is located in Wilkes County and lies 146 miles [235 km] to the north of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Wilkes County community of Westwood Hills.
Pennsylvania
Allegheny County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Pennsylvania community of Westwood Hills [Allegheny County].
Tennessee
Blount County
This Westwood Hills is located in Blount County and lies 202 miles [325.1 km]<1> to the northwest of the Westwood Hills that is located in Lexington County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Blount County community of Westwood Hills.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Westwood Hills ...
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 Westwood Hills to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Westwood Hills and extending to:
The White House (Washington, DC) is 405 miles [651.8 km]<1> to the north northeast (NNE). If you could drive a straight line from Westwood Hills to White House, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take most of a day to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 23 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 16 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,285 miles [10,114.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,979 miles [11,231.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,861 miles [7,823 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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- Westwood Hills) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
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 Westwood Hills 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.
<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 Westwood Hills 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 Westwood Hills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.0085, Longitude: -81.0934 In this case, the coordinates for Westwood Hills have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.356 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.531 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 307.952 degrees.