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 Belle:
38.233784, -81.538762
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 share the name Belle.
Within West Virginia, the name Belle is unique.
Beyond West Virginia, we know of another two communities that are located throughout in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Mississippi
Clay 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 Mississippi community of Belle [Clay County].
Missouri
Maries County
This Belle is located in Maries County and lies 551 miles [886.7 km]<2> to the west of the Belle that is located in Kanawha County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Maries County community of Belle.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Belle ...
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.
Blackhawk (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blackhawk have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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 town such as Belle to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Belle and extending to:
Charleston, which is the Seat of Kanawha County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<2> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Belle to Charleston, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies 9 miles [14.5 km] to the north northwest (NNW). The buggy would take a little over three hours and walking would take four to five hours.
The White House (Washington, DC) is 247 miles [397.5 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 14 days.
The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,115 miles [9,841.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,828 miles [10,988.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,703 miles [7,568.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<9>
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 Belle 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 '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- Belle) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Belle. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.2338, Longitude: -81.5388 In this case, the coordinates for Belle have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>
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.
<6>
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 Belle to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.
<7>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.607 degrees.
<8>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.434 degrees.
<9>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.86 degrees.