This is a mini series of caches that extend the exploration of the Solar System started with the Pasadena Solar System Adventure Lab and AL bonus cache (GC93RG8). Since the five stops of the Adventure Lab only visited the planets known to the ancient world, this extended series takes you to the rest of the Solar System! The actual cache location is N 34° 10.HIJ W 118° 02.KLM where the missing digits can be found by solving a Solar System Quiz:
(A) is the number of successful lunar landings in the Apollo program 1969-72
(B) is the number of minutes (rounded off) for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth
(C) is the number of known moons of Mars
Neptune was the (D)th planet explored by the Voyager 2 mission
(E) is the number of letters in the name of Saturn's largest moon
The traditional symbol for Neptune is a fork with (F) tines
H=D-F I=F+2C J=F K=D+E L=A M=B-E
In keeping with the theme of the Lab, the cache is located at the scale distance from the Sun of planet Neptune. The Sun is located at Paseo Colorado in Old Town Pasadena. The cache is log only.
Neptune was discovered in 1846 by Johan Galle and Urbain LeVerrier and is the farthest principal planet from the Sun. It was explored in 1989 by the NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft. It is orbited by a single large moon Triton in a retrograde orbit. Triton resembles Pluto in size and composition and may be a captured Kuiper belt object. Neptune also has a system of rings and smaller moons. At 17.1 Earths, Neptune is a bit more massive than Uranus, but has a slightly smaller diameter. At this model scale Neptune, like Uranus, would be about the size of a softball four inches in diameter. Neptune takes 164.8 years to complete an orbit of the Sun.
