Some years ago I graduated as a Master of Science in Geodesy. Somehow I ended up in software development for an oil and gas company, but the surveying interest is still present.
During my studies I was introduced to the then brand new Global Positioning System. I remember having to setup a large GPS receiver and leaving it stationary for at least 30 minutes to get a good fix of the position. It is unbelievable that modern handheld GPS receivers are able to get an accurate position fix within seconds (even indoors in some buildings) and are becoming a standard feature in every cell phone!
Back in 1615 a Dutch astronomer and mathematician Willebrord Snel van Royen (Snellius), determined the radius of the earth by measuring the distance between the Dutch cities of Alkmaar and Bergen op Zoom. These cities were separated by one degree on the meridian. With this work (published in 1617) he introduced surveying techniques that are still in use today. Only since the mid nineties these techniques are made somewhat obsolete with the arrival of cheap and accurate GPS devices.
As Snellius was the patron of our fraternity (and beying Dutch myself) it seemed only suitable to create a cache in his honour. So one beautiful morning I packed my trusted theodolite and headed for Nose Hill Park. I positioned my theodolite at a suitable location and started observing the peaks of three mountains in the rockies. These are the horizontal angles I measured:
Using geodetic techniques introduced by Snellius, you can calculate where I was.
Naturally, for good observations you need a clear view, but for a good hide you need some cover. So after completing my measurements I hid the cache exactly 280.15 meters (bearing 110 degrees) from my observation point.
The cache is a 1L L'n'L container with a logbook and some trade items. There is a $10 Tim's Card for the FTF.
NOTE: Since the original source of the images has been taken offline, there is no good way to solve this puzzle. So I could either archive the puzzle, or provide another way of getting the right information. I chose to do the latter so here are the three mountains I surveyed:
- Mount Burke: N50 17.401 W114 31.409
- Mount Blane: N50 43.584 W115 4.368
- Devil's Head: N51 20.681 W115 15.916
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The button below is for the final location (not the observation point).
With the right input, the solution can be exact but just to be sure I setup the checker to be fuzzy.
Drop me a line if you think you are close.
The cache can be difficult to find at any time of the year. Although it was hidden in winter conditions, it might be even more difficult if there is a lot of snow. I'll provide hints to the location if requested.
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Congratulations to j2d2 for his FTF!