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 Ruthdale:
38.319819, -81.722903
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 one communities that are also named Ruthdale.
Within West Virginia, the name Ruthdale is unique.
Beyond West Virginia, there is another community also named Ruthdale in the United States.
Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
Oklahoma
Nowata County
This Ruthdale is located in Nowata County and lies 773 miles [1,244 km]<1> to the west of the Ruthdale that is located in Kanawha County.
For more information, please visit our profile page for the Nowata County community of Ruthdale.
Curious and Interesting Names Near Ruthdale ...
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 Ruthdale to various places of note, such as the White House.
With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Ruthdale and extending to:
Charleston, which is the State Capital of West Virginia, lies just to the east northeast (ENE).
The White House (Washington, DC) is 255 miles [410.4 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Ruthdale to White House, with an average speed<2>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 15 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 10 days.
The shortest distance<3> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,118 miles [9,846 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<4>
The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,832 miles [10,995 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,708 miles [7,576.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>'
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- Ruthdale) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>
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.
<3>
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 Ruthdale 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 Ruthdale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.3198, Longitude: -81.7229 In this case, the coordinates for Ruthdale have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 310.717 degrees.
<5>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.572 degrees.
<6>
The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.912 degrees.