On the map below you will see our Solar System Series follows a rough line north to south along the Cambrian Mountains of Mid Wales and covers 40 miles using 1 mile to 1 astronomical unit, which itself equals 93 million miles. When finding the caches you will also notice we have chosen cache sizes relative to the size of the planets etc.
The picture below shows the relative size and positions of the objects in our series, which starts with Sol near Dylife then travels in a southerly direction nearly 40 miles to end with Pluto near Llanwrda just south-west of Llandovery.
There are 15 caches in all, as we have included the first four Asteroids to be discovered and a famous Comet. We have also included Pluto, as most people have grown up learning that Pluto was a planet, though now demoted to dwarf planet status.
Mercury is just a little bit larger than Earth's moon. Mercury's surface was photographed by NASA's Mariner 10 space probe in 1974/75, showing the surface to resemble that of the Moon, heavily cratered by meteorite impact.
The surface of Mercury that faces the Sun can reach about 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, the temperature on the night time side can plummet to almost -300 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because Mercury has little to no atmosphere to help regulate temperature.
The MESSENGER spacecraft was the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation have helped unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. In the mission's more than four years of orbital operations, MESSENGER acquired over 250,000 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER's highly successful orbital mission has come to an end, as the spacecraft ran out of propellant and the force of solar gravity caused it to impact the surface of Mercury on April 30, 2015. For full details of the Mission to Mercury see http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/overview-of-messenger-spacecrafts-impact-region-on-mercury.
When deciding where to place our Solar System series we thought of using the Cambrian Mountain Ridge as a guideline to give Geocachers a scenic route and to give suitable cache sites with interest. We chose to start the series with Sol at it's northern end near the Star Inn because of the connection... Sol being our nearest 'star'.
Here Mercury is 0.39 miles away from Sol, where we found an area showing some of the old Dylife mining history.
On the opposite side of the road from the cache, you can see the remains of some of the mine buildings. Below is one of the rivers that provided water power to the Dylife mines, the Nant Dropyns flowing down over rocky waterfalls towards the Dylife Gorge where it drops 130ft down a sheer rock face...see more details about the waterfall on the Venus Cache page GC3PA4V.
We hope you enjoy our Welsh Solar System series...D&W
If you are interested in Astronomy here in the Dark Skies of the Cambrian Mountains then check out our Mid Wales Astronomy fb page ... www.facebook.com/midwalesastronomy and you are welcome to join us at Newtown Astronomy Society who have monthly meetings from September to June... www.facebook.com/groups/1412459148966189