Welcome to Pallas, the second largest asteroid in our Solar System. You will need to do Astro research to calculate the actual cache location. Not at the listed coordinates, but in that general direction of the universe! Read on!
This cache is part of TeamAstro’s journey through the Solar System. Other Solar System caches have been progressively released across Australia. The scale of TeamAstro's Solar System has been carefully calculated to reflect the distances between the planets and other Solar System objects. Your own geocaching tour of the Solar System will take you on an astronomical journey throughout Australia.
Finding the Pallas cache will involve driving on some dirt roads. This is a dry weather cache only. Why not try and pick up the cache "The Asteroids: Ceres" while in this neck of the Solar System?
Pallas was the second asteroid to be discovered and not surprisingly it is also the second largest asteroid after Ceres. It was found in 1802 by a German astronomer and physician Wilhelm Olbers only one year after Ceres was discovered. Wilhelm was engaged in observations to recover, and determine the orbit of the asteroid Ceres using the predictions of the great mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss. Pallas, is named after the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. It is 490 kilometres in width.
Its orbit carries it a distance of over 414,390,000 kilometres around the Sun and lasts over four and a half years. Animate Pallas' orbit in 3D here. Pallas is part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, hence this cache's location. Scientists have discovered that Pallas contains water (the water isn't as a liquid) but it is a very hard asteroid made of mostly carbon and magnesium.
Where do you go? Get your telescope (or PC) and observe the following!! First, find the name of the object. Ask an astronomer or Mr Google, it's up to you.
The number of letters in the object's one word name is shown in parenthesises near its picture so you should get that part right. Significant letter in the name is given as well. Use this significant letter to calculate the correct latitude and longitude thousandths, using the significant letter's numeral viz A=1, B=2 ... . Numeral to use in actual lat or long thousandths is given by doing the simple calculation at the end, ie (letter + X).
Picture 1 for first thousandths : Name this famous group of stars in Taurus (8), Significant letter = 5 (letter +1).
Picture 2 for second thousandths : Name this asteroid (6), Significant letter = 1 (letter number +0).
Picture 3 for third thousandths : Name this nebula in Aquila (1), Significant letter = 1 (letter number +2).
