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.
There are millions of asteroids and like most other Small Solar System Bodies, asteroids are thought to be the often shattered remnants of planetesimals, bodies within the young Sun’s solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets. A large majority of known asteroids orbit in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
The asteroid Juno was discovered on September 1st 1804 by German astronomer Karl Harding. Although it was the third asteroid found, it is ranked about tenth for size. It only has about 3% of the mass of Ceres. The asteroid Juno has a sizable crater near its southern pole that has intrigued astronomers for a number of years.
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 Juno should be 2.66 miles away from Sol, but here with three of the Asteroids in this series we have taken a slight liberty with the 'distance' and relocated them in an area we discovered in part of the Hafren Forest with all it's beautiful woodland flora and fauna. Here you are walking along part of Glyndwr's Way with backwater views of the Llyn Clywedog reservoir.
In 2004 some Osprey nesting platforms were built in the Hafren Forest. In spring 2014 a pair of Ospreys set up home near the shore of Llyn Clywedog Reservoir, after an absence of nearly a century. Even better they raised chicks.
These spectacular fish-eating birds of prey became extinct in the British Isles in 1916. They had been killed illegally, their eggs were stolen by collectors, and adults shot during their annual migration between here and Africa. In 1954 a breeding pair from Scandinavia built their nest in Scotland and numbers are slowly rising but there are still only a handful of nest sites in Wales.
From the viewing area, you may get to see the breeding pair hunting for fish over the lake and protecting their nest from other birds such as Red Kites and Buzzards. Young Osprey may return to their original nest when they are 2 but they will not start to breed until they are between 3 and 5 years old.
We would like to thank the NRW-Forestry Commission for giving us permission to place these caches in the Hafren Forest
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