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 Ghent:
36.862648, -76.300775
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 eleven communities that are also named Ghent.
There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Ghent.
Beyond Virginia, we know of ten communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Located In Virginia ...
Roanoke City
This Ghent is located in Roanoke City and lies 204 miles [328.3 km]<1> to the west.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Roanoke City community of Ghent.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Georgia
Gwinnett 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 Georgia community of Ghent [Gwinnett County].
Kansas
Ghent #1
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 Kansas community of Ghent.
Kentucky
Carroll County
This Ghent is located in Carroll County and lies 494 miles [795 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Carroll County community of Ghent.
Maine
Waldo County
This Ghent is located in Waldo County and lies 635 miles [1,021.9 km]<1> to the north northeast.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Waldo County community of Ghent.
Minnesota
Lyon County
This Ghent is located in Lyon County and lies 1,149 miles [1,849.1 km]<1> to the northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lyon County community of Ghent.
New York
Columbia County
This Ghent is located in Columbia County and lies 403 miles [648.6 km]<1> to the north northeast.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Columbia County community of Ghent.
Ohio
Summit County
This Ghent is located in Summit County and lies 412 miles [663 km]<1> to the northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Summit County community of Ghent.
Pennsylvania
Bradford County
This Ghent is located in Bradford County and lies 345 miles [555.2 km]<1> to the north.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bradford County community of Ghent.
Texas
Cherokee County
This community is historic<3> and although located in Cherokee County, we don't know where within the .
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cherokee County community of Ghent.
West Virginia
Raleigh County
This Ghent is located in Raleigh County and lies 269 miles [432.9 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Raleigh County community of Ghent.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Ghent ...
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 Ghent to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Ghent 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 Ghent 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 146 miles [235 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 5,952 miles [9,578.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,646 miles [10,695.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,527 miles [7,285.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Ghent) 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 Ghent 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>
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 Ghent, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Ghent 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 Ghent. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.8626, Longitude: -76.3008 In this case, the coordinates for Ghent have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.581 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.776 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.186 degrees.