Geocaching Australia

I reckon the distance in the calculation for travelling to the moon could be a bit far. From the wiki:

"The average distance between the Moon and the Earth is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles). This distance fluctuates between 363,104 kilometers and 405,696 kilometers (225,622 to 252,088 miles) due to the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit."

But that's from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon. And our gnomes are travelling from the surface of the earth to the surface of the moon. So I reckon if they've travelled 374,631km they might well be there by now if they jump out of their spaceship and freefall for a bit!

Can anyone tell us exactly how far the moon is from Australia this week?

I have the distance as 384,600km which is close enough to the average distance you quote.
As at 8:00am the gnomes have travelled 376,920km.
That's only 7,680km to go.

We have just logged gnomes from our overnight foray to the coast, so that should help a tiny bit.

Wendy

http://www.cachinggames.com/gegnomeproject/ladder.php
The GeGnome Project caches have travelled 377,909.73kms, have been moved 3283 times and have 6,690.27km to get to the moon.

I have posted the question to a member of the Oz teachers mailing list who is keen on astronomy. His website can be found at http://nightskyonline.info/ and it says "This website is maintained by Paul Floyd. I am a school teacher and amateur astronomer with 21 years experience (as at 2011) in running a range of education and public astronomy outreach activities"

There are currently 14 gnomes already logged into the Gnomes and Cachers event today... We are expecting a big turnout of gnomes! See GC2M37C.

Will this be the biggest gathering of gnomes so far?

Renroc wrote:I have posted the question to a member of the Oz teachers mailing list who is keen on astronomy. His website can be found at http://nightskyonline.info/ and it says "This website is maintained by Paul Floyd. I am a school teacher and amateur astronomer with 21 years experience (as at 2011) in running a range of education and public astronomy outreach activities"

Here is the email I sent to 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? Aactually to be exact the race finishes at midnight on 31st of Jan.
---------------
Have already received a reply from Paul. Quoted below.

Here is your answer: 396,621.35 km at Midnight on 31 January 2011. I
assumed in the answer that you are in Eastern Australia which is
following Summer time.

I couldn't resist putting your email (minus your last name and email
address) on my blog at http://nightskyonline.info/?p=1547
Regards, Paul Floyd.

Is there a Guiness Book of Records category for gnomes

Renroc wrote:
Here is your answer: 396,621.35 km at Midnight on 31 January 2011. I assumed in the answer that you are in Eastern Australia which is following Summer time.

Does this now further complicate matters? When does the race end? In WA will be able to travel after the rest of the country have finished . Will QLD be dealt yet another blow by being the first to have to stop their travelling ?

The GeGnome Project caches have travelled 379,026.36kms, have been moved 3307 times and have 5,573.64km to get to the moon.

The game finishes 23:59:59 AEDST

DUDE!!
Paul used to be one of my teachers in year 7!!!! (only..7 years ago!) Far out!

(there's my two cents plus gst for this conversation. Freaky.)

Renroc wrote: Here is your answer: 396,621.35 km at Midnight on 31 January 2011. I assumed in the answer that you are in Eastern Australia which is
following Summer time.

mm, I think we will have to take the Master's decision that 384,600 is the number we are going for then

But we're getting VERY VERY VERY close. So far, we only have 4,361.17km to go and we've landed on the moon I hope everyone today moves as many as possible as far as possible!

http://geocaching.com.au/cache/ga2811
This one was double logged today, so the stats are still off.

blossom* wrote:I reckon the distance in the calculation for travelling to the moon could be a bit far. From the wiki:

"The average distance between the Moon and the Earth is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles). This distance fluctuates between 363,104 kilometers and 405,696 kilometers (225,622 to 252,088 miles) due to the eccentricity of the Moon's orbit."

But that's from the centre of the earth to the centre of the moon. And our gnomes are travelling from the surface of the earth to the surface of the moon.

Radius of Earth : 6378km
Radius of Moon : 1738km
Earth-surface to Moon-surface is therefore 8116km less than the standard quoted gravitational centre to gravitational centre distance, whether annual average or specific time.
There is also a +/- 10km variation due to surface features on the moon and here on Earth.

Cheers,
Briggbottoms

weeeellllll if the calculations were done by road rather than as the crow flies, we are probably at Mars