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 Bandera:
47.386777, -121.533707
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 two communities that are also named Bandera.
Within Washington, the name Bandera is unique.
Beyond Washington, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Kansas
Bourbon County
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Bandera [Bourbon County].
Texas
Bandera County
This Bandera is located in Bandera County and lies 1,707 miles [2,747.2 km]<2> to the southeast of the Bandera that is located in King County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bandera County community of Bandera.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Bandera ...
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 that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Bandera to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Bandera and extending to:
Seattle, which is the Seat of King County, lies 40 miles [64.4 km]<2> to the west northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Bandera to Seattle, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take over two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just about two full days.
Olympia, which is the State Capital of Washington, lies 68 miles [109.4 km] to the west southwest (WSW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take three full days.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,283 miles [3,674.1 km] to the east (E). Driving would take 5 days, a buggy would take 90 days and walking would take 130 days.
The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,775 miles [10,903.3 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<5>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,538 miles [12,131.2 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<6>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,652 miles [9,096 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<7>'
Footnotes ...
<1>
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 Bandera 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.
<2>
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- Bandera) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Bandera 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 Bandera. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.3868, Longitude: -121.5337 In this case, the coordinates for Bandera have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 340.202 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 341.638 degrees.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 327.251 degrees.