George (Astronomy science series)

If you are out 4x4ing, this is an easy find along Forest Road 271 in Park County.

Georgium sidus, or George’s star, was named for King George of England. It is the seventh planet in our solar system. Discovered March 13, 1781, by William Herschel it was the first planet ever discovered using a telescope.

This planet looks blue because of the Methane in its upper atmosphere. It has an axial tilt of 89°, making it a sideways planet. It is third largest by diameter, and fourth largest planet by mass. It is a gas giant, has rings, and moons named after Shakespearean characters.

In France, this planet was called “Herschel”, and in Germany it was called “Neptune” for the god of the sea, until it was given a permanent name. Astronomer Bode (a contemporary of Herschel’s) chose a Latinized version of the name of Greek god of the Sky, Ouranos… have you figured out the name of this planet yet?

It’s Uranus! (pronounced “you’re in us” by all the fashionable astronomers)

George is one of four gas giant planets in our solar system. The gas giants are all many, many times larger than the size of the Earth. Unlike regular planets Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth, and dwarf planets Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea and Pluto, there is no land to land on on Uranus. If there is an Earth-sized solid core in the middle, we cannot see it through all the air that it has. Being that it’s mostly atmosphere; Ouranos is a very good name, indeed!

Or George. George is easier to say.

Originally I thought this science series would be a power trail, but things being the way things are, these astronomy-themed caches are not very power-trail-ish. Instead, the first half can be found along Lake George’s Forest Rd 271. This is a 4x4 trail; please do not attempt with a regular car! Terrain and difficulty ratings are for people who drive to the cache locations; if you hike or mountain bike, of course the D/Ts will be different.

There will be a mixture of regular sized and small caches to start. We have a lot of peanut-butter jars to repurpose. The key is to have fun! And stay safe!

cache is a small drink container with leopard-print duct tape.

A special thanks (and FTF) to Sportslane for finding and fixing the cache which had problems getting published.