Andromeda Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Quick cache on your way to the beach
Welcome to Wells Beach!
A quick stop before going to the beach!
Name of the cache has no meaning to the cache itself, but every time I'm up here, I look for the Andromeda Galaxy in the sky from this area.
You're supposed to pay to park in the parking area (this is relatively new), but there's no kiosk where someone mans the booth, so you may be able to make a quick park n' grab. Other parking is on Gold Ribbon Dr, if you're lucky, or just south a little bit off the side of the road near Eldridge Rd.
Difficulty is raised a little higher for beach season. If it's not beach season, then enjoy a 1 star difficulty!
BYOP!
Andromeda Galaxy Facts:
- The Andromeda Galaxy is the farthest object we can see with the naked eye; it's about 2.9 million light years away (a light year is calculated by the distance light takes to go in one earth year. Light travels at approximately 180,280 miles per second. One light year=~6 Trillion miles!)
- It's over 200,000 light years across (our galaxy is 100,000 thousand light years across)
- Its catalog number is M31. M stands for Messier. Charles Messier started cataloging stellar objects in the 1800s in hopes to find cometary objects
- It is the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy (the Small and Large Magellanic clouds are much closer, but are much smaller)
- The doppler effect of light shows that Andromeda is blue shifted, or in other words, that it is careening towards the Milky Way and will collide with us in 5 billion years
- The central black hole in the nucleus of the galaxy weighs in at 30 million solar masses (where 1 solar mass=the weight of our sun) while the central black hole in the Milky Way is about 10 million solar masses
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Evtug ybar cbfg, ba gur tebhaq