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 Bel-Aire:
36.919592, -76.231883
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 five communities that share the name Bel-Aire.
Within Virginia, the name Bel-Aire is unique.
Beyond Virginia, we know of another five communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
California
Marin County
This Bel-Aire is located in Marin County and lies 2,511 miles [4,041.1 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Marin County community of Bel-Aire.
Kansas
Sedgwick County
This Bel-Aire is located in Sedgwick County and lies 1,153 miles [1,855.6 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Sedgwick County community of Bel-Aire.
Tennessee
Coffee County
This Bel-Aire is located in Coffee County and lies 567 miles [912.5 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Coffee County community of Bel-Aire.
Rutherford 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 Tennessee community of Bel-Aire [Rutherford County].
Washington
Grays Harbor County
This Bel-Aire is located in Grays Harbor County and lies 2,499 miles [4,021.8 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Grays Harbor County community of Bel-Aire.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Bel-Aire ...
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.
Cherokee Heights (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cherokee Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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 Bel-Aire to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Bel-Aire and extending to:
Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 78 miles [125.5 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Bel-Aire to Richmond, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 143 miles [230.1 km] to the north northwest (NNW). Driving would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 6 days and walking would take 9 days.
The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,946 miles [9,569.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,640 miles [10,686 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,522 miles [7,277.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
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 from Point A (ie- Bel-Aire) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bel-Aire. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.9196, Longitude: -76.2319 In this case, the coordinates for Bel-Aire have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Bel-Aire 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 . 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>
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.
<4>
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.
<5>
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 Bel-Aire to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.539 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.737 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.138 degrees.