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.
Pallas accounts for over 7% of the total mass of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. While it rivals Vesta in size (582 km by 500 km) it is smaller in mass and comes in as the 3rd largest of the 4 major asteroids. Pallas was discovered on March 28th 1802 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers.
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 Pallas should be 2.85 miles from Sol, but with these three 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.
Hidden away in this small nature reserve is a wooden shelter and pathway to GZ
We would like to thank the 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