Orion (The Hunter) is surely the most appropriate
constellation for Geocaching. This series plots the shape of the
main stars of Orion in the downland between Blackcap and Denton.
You do not need to visit the published locations that make up the
constellation. Use the celestial coordinates of each star to
construct the actual locations of the caches. Each one is
different. The actual caches co-ordinates are all within (often
well within) 800m of the published co-ordinates. You can collect
all these caches in a single walk, with some excursions off public
footpaths onto small unmarked paths. You only need to do anything
resembling crashing through undergrowth as you get close to some of
the GZs. Since I planned this series a new fence has been erected
which may cause some annoying backtracking. A good sequence to do
these in, without the need to climb any fences, would be
Rig-Hat-Mint-Neb-Miz-Alnm-Bell-Meis-Alnk-Bete-Sai – or the
reverse.
Finding celestial co-ordinates for these stars should be easy
enough, but be advised that different sky sites give varying
numbers of decimal places. Beware of rounding issues. I have tried
to keep the most critical substitutions unambiguous, and
there’s always the geochecker to make sure you are on the
right track.
Also known as 42 Orionis, (but not to be mixed up with the
nearby M42). Only named in arabic this is the main star in the
group that makes up the start of orions sword. It is embedded in
another nebula separate from the Orion nebula.
If the celestial location of Mizan Batil al Awwal is written as
this :
Ra : AB : CD : EF.G, Dec : -JK : LM :
PQ.R
The location of the Cache is this :
Nth: BA K(K+L).PM(E+G), East: 000
J(C+1).DL(C-E)
You can check your answer for the cache location on
Geochecker.com.