TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

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FlyingPigSquadron
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TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by FlyingPigSquadron » 11 October 09 11:36 am

Whilst away on holidays we came across many Trig Points and photographed them as an interest -on arriving home we have discovered Trig points have now become Aussie Caches. Logging we found a number we photographed not on the compiled lists - on closer look at the information on the photographs we realised all unpublished ones were in fact geodetic survey stations (a couple have been put added to the site by cachers as Trig Points)
My question is - do Geodetic Survey Stations come under Trig Point entries, Locationless survey markers, or do they have / or need a place of their own?
FlyingPigSquadron - Jennifer & Richard

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by TeamGeoPlesk » 11 October 09 3:28 pm

I think earlier on in the discussions about this we were going to initially focus more so on the Trig Points as there are potentially many million Geodetic Survey Stations across the country. I appologise if i am wrong, but i will assume that by Geodetic Survey Station that you mean what i have been refering to Survey Marks (simply the brass disks of known vertical or horizontal position).

If, however, there is some sort of structure (cairn, firetower, telstra tower) i suppose that i would be willing to go out and find it and that it could pass as a trig point. Prehaps you could post a some picture examples of the survey stations and lets see what people think.

To illustrate the number of survey marks around, there are 10 within 200meters of my house. Also along the state and territory boarders there is about one every 500meters to mark the boundary (well at least there is between NSW and SA). That all adds up to many many points.

Anyways they are just my thoughts, prehaps some others have some different ideas.

TGP

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by PesceVerde » 11 October 09 3:54 pm

I've logged a couple of GCA trig. point caches in the Brisbane area. All you need is a photo of your GPSr and possibly self, and the trig. point.
It a slightly different experience compared to the container and logbook, but I'm liking it so far. :D

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by Damo. » 11 October 09 4:02 pm

The appeal of seeking trig points is that they are generally on the top of the highest point in the area so take some physical effort to get to.
Survey marks can be found in the footpath of urban streets and are as common as muck. :lol:

There are locationless caches for survey marks listed for all the states and territories. I see you logged one of your previous finds on the Vic listing and I'd suggest that is as good a place to log them as any.

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by FlyingPigSquadron » 11 October 09 4:46 pm

Thanks for your reply these geodetic survey stations are set up just like the trig points on a column with the circular disc above it - they are not the simple disks in the ground - they have brass plates set into the column explaining what they are - we could see no difference between these and the Trig stations we were photographing apart from the brass plate

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by FlyingPigSquadron » 11 October 09 4:56 pm

Sorry further to the last comments and suggestions by Team Geoplesk - I don't know how to put a photo on the forum - but the best thing I can suggest to you is to look at Crookhaven Heads Trig Crookhaven, NSW, Australia S34° 54.156' E150° 46.096' which was set up by a cacher - this in fact is Greenwell Point Geodetic Survey Station on Crookhaven Heads - there is no listed Trig Point for Crookhaven Heads Hope this helps Thanks Jennifer & Richard

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by TeamGeoPlesk » 11 October 09 5:10 pm

Ahhhhh, sorry, i was sooo wrong there!

I reccon these are as good as Trig Points, they meet the 'Criteria' and are a point of interest which people interested in trig points would be keen to go out to find. To be honest if you had shown me a photo of one of these without any extra info i'd have just thought that they were weird western states trig points :P

For others reference, here is the photo refered to:
Image

Btw, to add a photo, in the 'Post a Reply' section you can click the 'Img' button and then paste the link inbetween the square brackets... like so

[img]http://geocaching.com.au/gallery/images ... 705831.jpg[ /img]

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FlyingPigSquadron
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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by FlyingPigSquadron » 11 October 09 5:18 pm

Thank you so much for that and for the information re posting a photo
Next thing - Should I contact the cacher and suggest to him to change the name to Greenwell Point Geodetic Survey Station as Crookhaven Heads Trig is technically incorrect? In which case is it likely that the "z" or sign would come up to show people on Google maps where the site is? Thanks Jennifer & Richard

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by TeamGeoPlesk » 11 October 09 5:44 pm

The beauty of the trig points is that they are not so much owned by a cacher, they are simply created by one. They are technically owned by the 'cacher' "Geocaching Australia" but this is just because a cache needs an owner in the databases.

Anyone who wants to add some extra details to the listing, change the title, or revise the diff/terr ratings can do so, and this is really encouraged. If you think that the title should be Greenwell Point Geodetic Survey Station then you can edit the listing to reflect that. In this case i believe that it would be the best option, that way future finders know that its a survey station and not a traditional trig point.

Also if you come across any others with really long names feel free to summarise them. TP4931 has the name "Mt Warrenmang, Pyrenees Ranges, Victoria" which is rather long to be displayed on a GPS. The only realy important piece of information here is "Mt Warrenmang". If you are in the field looking for this trig point it is most likely that you know you are in Victoria and that you are near the Pyrenees Ranges. If you are looking on the net you have the location information listed on the gca listing page. Personnally I'd change it, but its up to the individual.

Similarily, if you can expand upon the description of the location or add some extra info that is also good (I like to also link in a pic like this cache). That way the next finder will have a bit better idea about the area when they look at it online of from their cache notes. The more info the better!

For a basic summary of editing a listing try the wiki page:
http://wiki.geocaching.com.au/wiki/Trigpoint#Editing

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by FlyingPigSquadron » 11 October 09 6:31 pm

Thank you for that - we have a few more we photographed and will see if we can work out how to add them to the system - we also have photos etc of the areas because they are at lovely viewing spots but we didn't want to go too much further until we were sure we were doing the correct thing. We Very much appreciate all your help, thank you Jennifer & Richard

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by Damo. » 11 October 09 7:33 pm

A Trig (trigonometrical) station is a type of Geodetic survey marker.
What has been pictured IS a trig point. It's also a geodetic survey marker. Those marker things are also found all around the place not marked with the disk on a pillar.
Then they are still Geodetic survey markers but are NOT trig points.

I'm sure someone who knows a bit more technically about it will be able to explain it better than me.

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by J_&_J » 11 October 09 11:12 pm

I guess even unloved, horizontal trig points can be logged. :cry:

Image

This is poor old http://geocaching.com.au/cache/tp3214 as seen in February 2006.

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by albida33 » 05 November 09 5:41 pm

Hi everyone.

I have enjoyed the addition of Trig points to GCA, it has actually got me looking at GCA caches.

Anyway, I was out WEST in NSW last weekend and saw two 'TRIG point markers' (The usual double disc on a pole) on top of water towers. One in Ivanhoe and one in Yenda (near Griffith).

I have photos taken from about 200m away (at ground level) of both of them.

As these are not currently registered, is there any opinion of whether they qualify and if a photo from 200m away counts as a find.

Thanks in advance

Albida - Ralph

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by caughtatwork » 05 November 09 6:35 pm

Can you post a pic in the forum for us to have a look at?
200m (personally) seems a bit far, but it depends on what's around the area.

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Re: TRIG Points and Geodetic Survey Stations

Post by Team Ladava » 08 November 09 5:01 pm

We have just returned from a week in the Merimbula area and included 3 of the local Trig Points.
Wow, what an experience. Two out of three were up there with the highlights of our trip.
Any time you can get a 2WD geo-falcon to a 776m peak is an adventure in itself.
Our thanks to Geocaching Australia (and I suspect especially caught@work) for adding this wonderful new dimension to Australian Caching.
Cheers
Ian & Sandra
Team Ladava

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