Per velo ad astra

Dear Cachers!

New! Now with toolbox! Please read note dated 2009-05-03!

Please see the note dated 2009-04-10!

I commiserate about the fact that today nearly nobody nows anything about the sky and the starts. Let's try to change this sitution.

This cache is a puzzle. This puzzle can be solved only "on the way", becaus the way is the puzzle. So there is the chance that you may find nothing after a long ride/walk. Of courese it is possible to look for all 6 micros and solve the puzzle at home and come back later. You are guided to 7 locations, no. 7 is the cache. The micros 1 to 5 contain only the position of the next location (in clear words: nothing to puzzle and nothing to calculate!).  The micros are made of glass tubes of 10 cm length and 14 mm width with screw cap (see photo), additionally protected by a small plastic bag. Micro nr. 6 may surprise you. I told you, it is a puzzle.

This is an ideal cache for a bicycle ride, all locations can be reached easily by bike. The micros are hidden within 20 to 80 m from the path, so take a bike lock with you. For the final location you have to walk about 120 into the forrest. All micros are hidden between the roots of a tree (see spoiler!). There are horse riding pathes in the area, please don't use them with your bike. You will need about 2.5 houres beginning at the parking place. You can hunt this cache by walking, but this will take much longer.

If you come by car try to park at N 51° 02.668’ E 6° 48.712’. The way to the first micro is not very far. You can find it at the coordinates shown at the top of this page.

I have marked some trees close to the cache (and the micros) with green dots (about 10 cm diameter, no, not exactly at the locations) to help you finding it.

One photo of the first equipment of the cache is in the photo list.

To solve the puzzle you need the following tools:

a) calculator, pencil, lineal (or better a big set square), compass

b) a topographical map of the area (yes, made of paper). I have used the map „4906 Pulheim 1:25000“ of the Landesvermessungsamtes NRW. Please note for eventually used correction factors for GPS users, see the map's legend.

c) a star map of the northern sky. I have used the Cambridge Star Atlas, but you can use several maps from the internet or print your own map with some of the freeware sky programs. There are a lot of astronomical pages with online-maps. Very new is Google-Sky, included in Google-Earth beginnining with V 4.5.

Use that area of the star map that shows the most popular constellations of the northern sky. The puzzle is cirkumpolar, you can see it the whole year.

I think it is better not to go during rain because it is very difficult to work with paper maps then.

Now have fun!

Rheinflut1995