Ruth Patrick Science Education Center Observatory
Our Solar System Series - Venus
This cache was released on the day of the Transit of Venus, June 5, 2012. If you missed that transit, you will have to wait until 2117 (105 years) for the next one. This event occurs when the planet passes directly between the Earth and the Sun and is visible as a dot moving across the Sun's surface. The transit was used in past centuries to determine the distance between the Earth and the Sun. In 1882, a team of German scientists came to Aiken to observe the transit. The frame of one of their observatories can be seen at the Aiken Historical Museum.
The Venus cache is part of the solar system cache series centered at University of South Carolina Aiken. In this solar system model, the 5-meter (16.4-feet) dome of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center (RPSEC) Observatory represents the diameter of the Sun known as Sol. Be sure to compare the size of the planet image in the cache to the size of and distance to the observatory dome on top of the RPSEC. The sizes and distance are to scale.
Venus is the planet second closest to the Sun. It has been known since antiquity and named by the Greeks as one of the five asteres planetai or "wandering stars." Today, we know that it is one of the five planets orbiting the Sun that are visible to people on Earth with unaided vision. These wanderers or planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Venus Facts:
- One of the Terrestrial Planets that include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
- From Earth, it has phases like the moon
- Dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide with layers of sulfuric acid
- Distance from Sun: Average = 67 million mi.
- Diameter = 7,521 mi. (12,104 km.)
- Length of year = 225 Earth days
- Length of day = Rotates backward (clockwise) once every 243 earth days.
- Temperature: Approximately 855°F (457°C) planet wide
| Venus Distances with Sun Diameter = 5 m. |
| Diam cm |
Diam in |
Orbit km |
Orbit mi |
Orbit m |
Orbit ft |
| 4.35 |
1.71 |
0.389 |
0.24 |
389 |
1,276 |
This cache was placed with permission of university officials. Be sure to obtain the code from the cache container in order to find the final Sun cache location.
All First Day Finders (FDF) received a prize of two complementary planetarium tickets and a FDF Award Card. Visit http://rpsec.usca.edu/planetarium/ for schedule information.The original cache container was a door prize from the CSRA Geocachers Meet and Eat on May 26, 2012. Unfortunately, that container was lost when the bushes in which it was hidden were removed in December 2018.
Congratulations to AikenRay who sought and was FTF Venus!
RPSEC Solar System Series:
Permission to hide this geocache granted by USC Aiken.