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 Melbourne:
46.947201, -123.622824
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 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 Grays Harbor County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
We found twelve communities that share the name Melbourne.
Within Washington, the name Melbourne is unique.
Beyond Washington, we know of another twelve communities that are located throughout in the United States and Canada. Of these twelve communities, eight are located in the United States and four are in Canada.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Arkansas
Izard County
This Melbourne is located in Izard County and lies 1,787 miles [2,875.9 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Izard County community of Melbourne.
California
Mendocino County
This Melbourne is located in Mendocino County and lies 529 miles [851.3 km]<1> to the south of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mendocino County community of Melbourne.
Florida
Brevard County
This Melbourne is located in Brevard County and lies 2,646 miles [4,258.3 km]<1> to the east southeast of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Brevard County community of Melbourne.
Iowa
Marshall County
This Melbourne is located in Marshall County and lies 1,533 miles [2,467.1 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Marshall County community of Melbourne.
Kentucky
Campbell County
This Melbourne is located in Campbell County and lies 2,033 miles [3,271.8 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Campbell County community of Melbourne.
Manitoba
This Melbourne lies 1,132 miles [1,821.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
Michigan
Saginaw County
This community is historic<2> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Melbourne [Saginaw County].
Missouri
Harrison County
This Melbourne is located in Harrison County and lies 1,554 miles [2,500.9 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Harrison County community of Melbourne.
Nova Scotia
This Melbourne lies 2,737 miles [4,404.8 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
Ontario
This Melbourne lies 2,052 miles [3,302.4 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
Quebec
We found mention of this community, but have little information.<3> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Quebec community of Melbourne.
Tennessee
Anderson County
This Melbourne is located in Anderson County and lies 2,151 miles [3,461.7 km]<1> to the east of the Melbourne that is located in Grays Harbor County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Anderson County community of Melbourne.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Melbourne ...
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.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cedarville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
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 Melbourne to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Melbourne and extending to:
Olympia, which is the State Capital of Washington, lies 34 miles [54.7 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could walk a straight line from Melbourne to Olympia, with an average speed<6> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of 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.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 2,383 miles [3,835.1 km] to the east (E). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take 5 days, a buggy would take 93 days and walking would take 136 days.
The shortest distance<7> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,836 miles [11,001.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<8>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,596 miles [12,224.6 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<9>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,730 miles [9,221.5 km] and it lies to the north northeast (NNE).<10>
Footnotes ...
<1>
Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Melbourne) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Melbourne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.9472, Longitude: -123.6228
<2>
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 Melbourne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>
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 Melbourne 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.
<4>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<5>
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.
<6>
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.
<7>
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 Melbourne to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 341.915 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 343.606 degrees.
<10>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 328.654 degrees.