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 Hill and Dale Terrace:
30.212800, -95.154300
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 Hill and Dale Terrace
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 Montgomery County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
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:
Open the Waymark.com report for Hill and Dale Terrace
Curious and Interesting Names Near Hill and Dale Terrace ...
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 & 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 Hill and Dale Terrace to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<1> beginning in Hill and Dale Terrace and extending to:
Conroe, which is the Seat of Montgomery County, lies 19 miles [30.6 km]<1> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Hill and Dale Terrace to Conroe, with an average speed<2> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 hours.
Austin, which is the State Capital of Texas, lies 154 miles [247.8 km] to the west (W). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 9 days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 1,188 miles [1,911.9 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take about three full days, a buggy would take 47 days and walking would take 68 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 7,055 miles [11,353.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,777 miles [12,515.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,652 miles [9,096 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- Hill and Dale Terrace) 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 Hill and Dale Terrace 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 Hill and Dale Terrace. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.2128, Longitude: -95.1543 In this case, the coordinates for Hill and Dale Terrace have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 318.517 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 314.486 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 314.223 degrees.