RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Isle of Wight County >> Moonlight >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Moonlight, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Moonlight and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • 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 Moonlight:
    • 37.033760, -76.722180
    • 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 Moonlight
  • 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 Isle of Wight County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Isle of Wight County
    • Since Moonlight is near Surry County and also Southampton County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Surry County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Southampton 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:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Moonlight

Communities Also Named Moonlight ...

We found four communities that are also named Moonlight.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named Moonlight.

Beyond Virginia, we know of three communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Greensville County
      • This Moonlight is located in Greensville County and lies 48 miles [77.2 km]<1> to the west southwest of the Moonlight that is located in Isle of Wight County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greensville County community of Moonlight.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Indiana
      • Steuben County
      • This Moonlight is located in Steuben County and lies 543 miles [873.9 km]<1> to the northwest of the Moonlight that is located in Isle of Wight County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Steuben County community of Moonlight.
    • Kansas
      • Dickinson County
      • This Moonlight is located in Dickinson County and lies 1,114 miles [1,792.8 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Moonlight that is located in Isle of Wight County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Dickinson County community of Moonlight.
      • Stevens 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 Kansas community of Moonlight [Stevens County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Moonlight ...

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.

  • Alliance
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Alliance is located in Surry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alliance
  • Berrymans Corner
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Berrymans Corner is located in Surry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berrymans Corner
  • California Crossroads
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Comet
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Comet is located in Isle of Wight County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comet
  • Foursquare
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Foursquare is located in Isle of Wight County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foursquare
  • Highgate
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Highgate is located in Surry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highgate
  • Holly Point
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Holly Point is located in Isle of Wight County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Point
  • Magnet
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Magnet is located in Isle of Wight County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magnet
  • Sycamore Crossroads
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sycamore Crossroads is located in Isle of Wight County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore Crossroads

How Far From Moonlight 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 Moonlight to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Moonlight and extending to:

  • Isle of Wight, which is the Seat of Isle of Wight County, lies just to the South.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 52 miles [83.7 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could walk a straight line from Moonlight to Richmond, 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.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 129 miles [207.6 km] to the north (N). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than three hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 8 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,963 miles [9,596.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,659 miles [10,716.6 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,539 miles [7,304.8 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Moonlight) 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Moonlight 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 Moonlight 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 Moonlight. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.0338, Longitude: -76.7222       In this case, the coordinates for Moonlight have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.813 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.066 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.288 degrees.