I bled for this cache, so you better appreciate it.
This cache is part of a 1:133,700,000 scale
model of the solar system. The sun is the dome on the Monroe County Courthouse
in downtown Bloomington, Indiana.
Venus is about 12,100 kilometers in diameter, so this model is
roughly 3.57 inches across. Venus has the most circular orbit of
all the planets, orbiting at 107 to 109 million kilometers from the
sun, so this model had to be placed half a mile form the
Courthouse, give or take 25 feet. Venus' orbit is actually closer
to Earth's than Mars', but in this model, Venus is
on the other side of the Sun, so the distance seems greater.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, named after the roman
goddess of love and beauty. Because it is closer to the Sun than
the Earth, it is only ever visible in the hours just after sunset
or before sunrise. For a while, Venus was thought of as two
different stars: the Morning Star and the Evening Star.
Other than the Moon and the Sun, Venus is the brightest object
in our sky. This is partly because it is often close to us, but
also because it is very white, due to the thick clouds of sulfuric
acid that completely cover the surface. In the visible spectrum,
there are very few distinguishing features to be seen, even in the
clouds, which is why this model has such a boring paint job.
Despite being so similar to Earth in size, the extremely dense
atmosphere makes exploring the planet very difficult. The air
pressure on the surface of Venus is comparable to the pressure at a
depth of 1 km in Earth’s oceans.
The starting contents of the cache are a logbook and a five
Honduran centavo-de-lempira piece.