TMA-1:
The year was 2001. Earth men have established several bases on
their moon to facilitate it's exploration. An orbiting research
satellite mapping the moon's magnetic field reports a strange
phenomena. Near the rim of the crater Tycho exists an intense
magnetic field; an anomaly. It is come to be known as "Tycho
Magnetic Anomaly One" or "TMA-1". Digging down into the white
powdery surface of the moon, they find a rectangular black slab.
About ten and a half feet on it's long dimension, it is curiously
proportioned one by four by nine; the squares of the first three
integers.
Dubbed the "Monolith", speculations of it's origins abound,
including that it may be a cache left by visitors from another
solar system. Others suspect that it may have been left by the
Chinese during their third moon mission. However, subsequent
geological evidence concludes that it has been buried for at least
three million years. As scientists begin to probe it's mysteries,
the lunar dawn breaks and sunlight shines upon the monolith for the
first time in countless centuries. A shrieking sound is heard in
the helmet radios of the research team for a few seconds and the
monolith returns to silence.
In the days that follow, deep space probes report an unusual
radio signal had emanated from the moon at that same moment. As the
data is correlated it becomes clear that the signal was beamed at
the Saturn system, specifically at one of it's moons; Japetus. The
construction of the space craft "Discovery", already nearing
completion for a mission to the Jupiter system, is hastily
retrofitted for a mission to Japetus to find what lies there in
receipt of the monolith's message.
So begins Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "2001: A Space Odyssey".
SMA-1:
Jump ahead to 2004: It turns out that Dr. Clarke was somewhat
over optimistic about the future of space exploration; indeed no
moon bases exist or are even seriously planned. Not withstanding,
practical uses for space technology abound. Dr. Clarke foresaw the
emergence of a network of geostationary communication satellites,
deep space probes that travel to the outer reaches of our solar
system, and a myriad of satellites that closely observe the
activities on our planet and beyond. Seemingly he failed to predict
the implementation of a constellation of satellites that constantly
transmit their precise position and, more amazingly, the
development of small hand held receivers that could use those
signals to calculate positions within a few meters...
A small group of geocachers set out to find a geocache located in
Kohler-Andrae State Park. They realize that the snow cover will
likely thwart their efforts to find it, but they also know that the
walk in the quiet winter landscape will be reward in itself. As
they near the cache site, quite predictably, their GPS receiver
begins to become erratic. To supplement their sense of direction,
they use an old fashioned but reliable magnetic compass. But
strangely, it too is operating erratically. In fact, in one
location the earth's magnetic field seems completely reversed.
Digging down through the white powder that covers the earth's
surface, they spot a black rectangular object. About ten and a half
inches on it's long dimension, it is curiously proportioned one by
two by three; the values of the first three integers. They've found
it; Sheboygan Magnetic Anomaly One! Judging from the snow cover, it
must have been buried at least three days.
As they pull it from it's hiding place, they get a curious
feeling that it just beamed a message to Tycho crater...
OK. So much for the analogous anomaly narrative. This cache is an
experiment in making geocaching more practicable during the winter
in regions where the snow cover obscures the landscape. Here in
Wisconsin, a cache wouldn't need to be hidden in the winter; one
could just place it on the ground and it wouldn't be found until
spring. The day I hid this cache, I tried to find another nearby
cache that I have visited frequently. Even though I know precisely
where it is, I could not find it under the snow cover. The use of
metal detectors is prohibited in many areas, but compasses are
not.
To seek this anomaly I would suggest attaching a ball compass to
a short stick and pass it over the suspect area. The ball compasses
are good for this as they do not need to be kept level for the
needle to be free, but any compass should work fine. The cache has
two rare earth magnets attached to it so as to create the anomalous
field. This field is detectable about two feet from the cache with
a standard magnetic compass. Some GPS's have a built in flux gate
compass; it would be interesting to know if they can detect the
field from further away.
Please take care to replace it exactly as you found it; not just
in the same spot, the orientation is important too. Experiments
have shown that this orientation produces the largest and most
precision magnetic anomaly. There are two small dents in the top
face of the cache, so if you keep these facing up and position the
handle on the same side as it was, everything will be fine.
The hiking trails will bring you within about 200 feet of the
cache. Please use the deer trails on your final approach. In this
way your footprints will soon be obscured by the deer traffic and
you won't be doing damage to the vegetation.
Another area of research I am interested in pursuing with this
cache involves GPS accuracy's. I am encouraging everyone to enter
the coordinates shown on their GPSr at the cache site in the "Add a
waypoint" section of the cache log. A mention of the type of GPSr
you're using would be interesting as well.
The theme of this cache is of course, magnets! We've started it
out with a collection of refrigerator magnets.
One last thing: I know that some of you like to leave your
credit card in a cache so that subsequent finders can just go to
the store and pick something out instead being forced to choose
from a few trinkets. I always appreciated that, but this is not a
good cache to leave credit cards because the magnetic fields will
erase the card's magnetic stripe. Please leave cash instead.
Happy caching!
Update 9/25/06: This cache was placed prior to the new rule
requiring cache notification forms for caches on WDNR properties.
It has since been approved by the park superintendent, Jim
Buchholz. The
Cache Placement Form 2500-118 was submitted and signed. We
thank the staff for their help and cooperation.
For detailed information regarding hiding caches in Wisconsin
and the new rules for WDNR managed properties, please visit the WGA
website page by clicking the image below:
