The Hunt. This is a night-only hunt that starts at markers on a tree at the posted coordinates. There are about a dozen more points with tacks leading you to the cache. A modest flashlight will work fine, you don't need a searchlight. If the markers blink at you, do not approach them.
The terrain is off-trail and mostly level, but watch your step because recent logging has made the ground uneven in places and left large slash piles. The final cache location should stand out. The container is a plastic lock & lock style that can hold small travelers. After the cache you can either retrace your steps or head east to catch the road for the short walk back to camp.
Name. Mercury has been observed since the 14th century BC when it was known as the "jumping planet" because it moved quickly across the sky. Mercury is the son of Jupiter and Maia, one of the Pleiades, and is comparable to the Greek god Hermes. Both Mercury and Hermes were messengers of the gods, and also attended to commerce, trade and escorted the souls of the departed to Hades. Mercury is the source of words such as market, merchandise, merchant and merciful.
Factoids. Mercury is the smallest of the 8 major planets, smaller than even a couple of moons. It is the closest planet to the Sun and the fastest at over 100,000 mph. Its surface looks similar to the Moon, with extensive plains and heavy cratering, indicating that it has been geologically inactive for billions of years. Distinctive, narrow ridges extend up to several hundred kilometers; these may have been formed as Mercury’s iron-rich core and mantle cooled and contracted after the crust had already solidified.
Mercury is usually visible only during morning or evening twilight. During the day it is too close to the Sun to see.
- Distance from Sun = 0.31-0.47 AU (29-44 million miles)
- Diameter = 0.38 Earths (3,032 miles)
- Length of year in Earth days = 88
- Satellites = 0
- Mean surface temperature = 200-340 K (-100 F to 152 F)
- Weight of 100 pounds on surface = 38
Exploration. Two spacecraft have studied Mercury and another is planned. Mariner 10 mapped 45 percent of the planet in 1974-5 after a flyby of Venus. Decades later, MESSENGER also visited Venus before reaching Mercury in 2008 where it mapped the remainder of the planet. It eventually went into orbit and is in an extended mission mode.
A European-Japanese spacecraft with two probes is planned to be launched in 2015 and to reach Mercury in 2019, although current financial problems could delay the project.