Alphabetical: “A is for Astrophysics” Mystery Cache

Welcome to “Alphabetical”, a series created to introduce you to the many ways information can be hidden within Geocaching puzzles.

For experienced puzzlers, this will be a light warm-up. But for those new to the game, it offers a fun and approachable way to start flexing your puzzle-solving muscles.

Prelude

Before we get started, I just wanted to add some general information about puzzle solving. Whilst this series is designed to indroduce you to different ways to decode puzzles, the following fundamentals will be useful in any puzzle that you solve.

Puzzles are a fantastic way to keep the mind active and explore new ways of thinking that you hadn’t considered previously. Puzzle caches provide an alternate thrill from traditional caches, in that you not only get the thrill of solving a puzzle, but you then also get to go hunting for a geocache.
Unfortunately, a lot of geocachers actively stay away from puzzle caches. Some just don’t enjoy doing puzzles, however, others just feel like they don’t know how to approach them. If this is you and you would like to learn how to slay the puzzle dragon, this series is for you. 

There are two important rules to follow when geocaching:

1. You don’t have to find every cache
2. Make sure you are having fun. If you’re not, re-read rule #1

I am certainly no expert when it comes to solving puzzles, and whilst I have come a long way since I started on my puzzle solving journey, it is still a long road ahead. However, I wanted to share my own experience and knowledge with the caching community to make puzzles that bit less frightening for you.

In the information below, I am going to outline some of the basic information that you need to know when considering tackling a puzzle, then throughout this series, I am going to introduce you to 26 different methods of hiding information within puzzles that are commonly used in geocaching puzzles, which will hopefully build your confidence and puzzle solving skills.

Start Easy:
Geocaching is no different to any other skill that you have practised in your life. You never start with the most challenging elements. You start small and then work your way up as you gain confidence. Like with the traditional caches that you started finding, first you found some hidden underneath some sticks, and as you gained experience and confidence, you began to visualise other places where geocaches could be hidden.
Puzzling is no different. You would never start with a puzzle that has a difficulty rating of 5. You start small and work your way up to it as you get better and gain confidence. Not all puzzles are designed to be difficult; there are easy ones out there that you can do from the comfort of your couch, even whilst watching a movie.

Coordinates:
Whilst there are many different ways to represent a set of coordinates, Geocaching uses the format DMM (Degrees Decimal Minutes), which are represented in the following manner

N/S DDDº MM.MMM’ E/W DDDº MM.MMM’

Coordinates in our area follow a distinct pattern. They are a set of 15 numbers; 7 numbers for the South, which almost always start with 37 degrees, and 8 numbers for the East, which almost always start with 145 degrees. The further north you travel (towards Sydney), the Southerlies get closer to 36 degrees, and the further west you travel (towards Adelaide), the Easterlies get closer to 144 degrees. However, keep in mind that you have to cover a large distance for these numbers to change, so for the majority of the puzzles you solve, you want coordinates that start with S 37 and E 145. 
One important rule to keep in mind for puzzle caches, is that the final cache location must be within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the posted coordinates. Therefore, this can help you figure out the next two digits of the south and the east coordinates (the ”minutes”) as these will be within one or two numbers, up or down, from the posted coordinates.
 
This will give you an idea of some of the numbers you should be looking for, and you can search for patterns that will give you the numbers 3, 7, and 1, 4, 5.
Not all puzzles will require you to find 15 numbers. Some might state “Assume S 37° 47.xxx′ E 145° 18.xxx”, and in this instance, you would be searching for only 6 numbers (the last three digits of each coordinate). Another alternate format you might encounter is 16 numbers, where a leading zero is placed infront of the 37 of the Southerly coordinates.
 

Cache Page Content
Any part of the cache page can be used to conceal information or provide hints to the puzzle solver. If you’re stuck on a puzzle, be sure to check out all of the possible hiding places on the page for clues.
The parts of the cache description page that can be modified by the owner include:
•    Cache name
•    Cache owner’s name (did you know you can modify that?)
•    Related web pages
•    Background image URLs
•    Short descriptions
•    Long descriptions
•    Hints
•    Log entries

Look Up Terms You Don’t Know
If you’re not familiar with a word in a cache title or description, look it up. Google is a powerful friend when it comes to puzzle solving. Likewise, when it comes to images. If you see something that you are unfamiliar with, or you think it may be worth exploring further, searching it with Google Lens can provide you with key information you need.

That's all there is to it, simple right? And now, onto the series

💬 What Is It?

Many geocaching puzzles rely on patterns. One of the most common patterns used is order. If a list of items has a known fixed order, then that order can be converted into numbers, which can then (with a little more work) become coordinates.

One very handy example of this is the order of the planets in our Solar System. When we learned the planets in school, we usually memorised their order from the Sun outward. Whether you learned a mnemonic like:

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos

or just memorised them, the important part is: the order is fixed and universal.

☀️ Planet Order and Values

(Pluto is optional — some puzzlers use it as 9!)

🔍 How It Works

1. List the planets in order of appearance.

2. Replace each with its number from the table.

💡 Puzzle Tip

But it may not be this obvious.

Puzzle makers can be tricky. They might not list planets directly. Instead, they may:

• Show planet symbols
• Use Roman gods
• Refer to mythology
• Use photos or telescope images
• Use spacecraft mission names associated with each planet

So part of solving is noticing when a group of items belongs to a known sequence.

Decode the message below to find where the geocache is located

(Make sure you note down the letter and its value from the logbook of the cache, as you will need it in order to find the bonus cache)