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 Saint Helena:
36.827926, -76.288552
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 Saint Helena.
Within Virginia, the name Saint Helena is unique.
Beyond Virginia, we know of another five communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
California
Napa County
This Saint Helena is located in Napa County and lies 2,500 miles [4,023.4 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Napa County community of Saint Helena.
Maryland
Baltimore County
This Saint Helena is located in Baltimore County and lies 168 miles [270.4 km]<1> to the north.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Baltimore County community of Saint Helena.
Nebraska
Cedar County
This Saint Helena is located in Cedar County and lies 1,182 miles [1,902.2 km]<1> to the west northwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Cedar County community of Saint Helena.
North Carolina
Pender County
This Saint Helena is located in Pender County and lies 183 miles [294.5 km]<1> to the south southwest.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Pender County community of Saint Helena.
South Carolina
Beaufort 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 South Carolina community of Saint Helena [Beaufort County].
Curious and Interesting Names Near Saint Helena ...
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.
Cloverdale (Less than 2 miles to the east)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cloverdale have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 Saint Helena to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Saint Helena and extending to:
Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 80 miles [128.7 km]<1> to the northwest (NW). If you could drive a straight line from Saint Helena 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 148 miles [238.2 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 5,953 miles [9,580.4 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 4,528 miles [7,287.1 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Saint Helena) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Saint Helena. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.8279, Longitude: -76.2886 In this case, the coordinates for Saint Helena 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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 Saint Helena 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 Saint Helena 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 307.576 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.765 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.194 degrees.