Every now and then I get emails from people with astronomical questions. This one brought a grin to my face (I have no idea what …racing gnomes.. refers to!). The answer is below the question (which is in italics).
Update: Sue has answered my question about what racing gnomes refers to. I have put her answer below the original post.
Question
Hi Paul,
I am a member of a group who are racing gnomes around the place at the moment (Geocaching Australia) and we were hoping that collectively they travel as far as the moon. A question was raised today which I thought you may be able to answer. It was can anyone tell what the distance the moon is from the surface of the earth this week? Actually to be exact the race finishes at midnight on 31st of Jan.
Sue
Answer
396,621.35 km at Midnight on 31 January 2011. I assumed in the answer that Sue was in Eastern Australia which is following Summer time.
More information about ‘racing gnomes’ (from Sue)
There are 163 gnomes (well there were at the start). Official statistics as at NOW. The GeGnome Project caches have travelled 379,026.36kms, have been moved 3307 times and have 5,573.64km to get to the moon. As part of Geocaching Australia there has been a moving cache race….. Normally the caches are placed in a location and people post the lat/longs on the website. Others download the info and go find the cache and sign the logbook then post a note on the website. However from Dec 1st 2010 to Jan 31st 2011 there has been a game within the game… People who wanted to could enter the great moving cache race. There are some rules but it is mainly just fun. The first rule is that the cache container MUST be a garden gnome. The other difference is that when it is a moving cache you post the co-ords and then someone goes and finds the cache (in this case the gnome) and takes it. They then relocate it and post the new co-ords… Gnomes were chosen this year because it is so common that people take other people’s garden gnomes and send postcards home etc. There was a great moving cache race same time last year but I didn’t participate and can’t recall what the caches had to be.
My gnomes started in Lismore. One spent a dangerous time on the riverbank near Brisbane Airport. The person who left him there was quite concerned as was I that he would be washed away…. However he survived and didn’t even get wet feet. He is now in Berry in southern NSW. The other one I had went south almost straight away but via the inland route. He spent the Australia Day evening at Rodd Point in Iron Cove so probably had a great view of the fireworks down there. He is currently not far from Rookwood waiting for his last move probably before tomorrow evening.
Someone has set up a program to log the distance each gnome travels and there are prizes etc. For all sorts of silly things too. ie some gnomes get broken… some so seriously that they needed a coffin… they are in their own category. Others are Best decorated gnome, most interesting places visited, best photos/log entries one who moved the least distance etc…. Some gnomes went overseas and came back again. One has gone overseas and wont be back until next year.
