Outdoor Activities ...
As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).
When in Fort Leaton, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Fort Leaton and the surrounding area.
- Weather ...
- Before heading outdoors, you should check the weather:
- The National Weather Service forecast for Fort Leaton
- Astronomy & Satellites ...
- 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 Fort Leaton:
- 29.542684, -104.322146
- 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.
- The Heavens-Above Website, centered on Fort Leaton
- 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 Presidio County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
- eBird sighting report for Presidio County
- Waymarking ...
- 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:
- Waymark.com
How Far From Fort Leaton to ...
We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Fort Leaton to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<1> community of Fort Leaton once stood, the straight-line distance<2> beginning in Fort Leaton and extending to:
- Marfa, which is the Seat of Presidio County, lies 56 miles [90.1 km]<2> to the north northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Fort Leaton to Marfa, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
- Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 396 miles [637.3 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take most of a day, a buggy would take 16 days and walking would take 23 days.
- The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,678 miles [2,700.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take most of three days, a buggy would take 66 days and walking would take 96 days.
- The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,433 miles [11,962.3 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
- The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 8,178 miles [13,161.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
- The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 6,065 miles [9,760.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Fort Leaton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <2> | 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 from Point A (ie- Fort Leaton) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Leaton. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.5427, Longitude: -104.3221 In this case, the coordinates for Fort Leaton have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Fort Leaton to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East. |
| <5> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 324.642 degrees. |
| <6> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 321.677 degrees. |
| <7> | The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 318.321 degrees. |