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Here is the first Treasure Hunt!
It is a comparatively simple one and it should not be too difficult to follow the 8 steps that will lead you to the `Treasure'. The first steps are the easiest!
Please observe the following rules:
1. The result of each step is a number. This number is indicated by means of one or two letters, that correspond to the digits of that number. Write the digits and the letters on a paper, indicating which corresponds to which. Each digit corresponds to just one letter and each letter corresponds to just one digit. You will need this at the end.
2. Each step involves a search for information on the Web. For this Treasure Hunt, we stay at sites which are rather easy to find and which should be relatively easy to access. By visiting various sites, you will discover new and interesting information, also such which is not directly related to this Hunt.
3. At the end, you use the digit/letter correspondence to find a word, here the name of an astronomical object.
4. This word will help you to find the `Treasure' - a secret Web-site!
Good luck - we hope that you will enjoy it - and may the Force be with you!
On June 18, 1996, ESO issued a Press Release about Astronomy On-Line.
This is Press Release number B in 1996.
Hint: ESO Press Releases may be accessed via the ESO Homepage. Click on the ESO logo at the top of the Astronomy On-Line toppage to get there.
In which issue of the Astronomy On-Line Bulletin was the Connection to WEST - the Web European Science and Technology server first announced?
The number of this issue is M.
Hint: Check the `News' page of Astronomy On-Line.
The European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) was established in Athens (Greece) in the month of November during a particular year.
Add the four digits of this year and you will get PT.
Hint: Visit the EAAE site in Sweden by clicking on the logo.
What is the exact diameter of the mirror of the large optical telescope that is located at the very summit at the La Silla observatory? Note that it is not exactly what the name of that telescope indicates!
Write this number as *** centimetres. Then add these three digits to get the two-digit number RI.
Hint: La Silla is the ESO Observatory in Chile. There are individual Web-pages for the telescopes there.
Several meteorites have been found in Antarctica which are now known to have come from Mars. One of these was found in 1994 in the Queen Alexandra Range. It has been given a name that includes a five-digit number.
Add the five digits of this number. This results in a two-digit number RU.
Hint: visit one of the Mars-related sites that is linked via the `Useful Addresses' page.
In July 1994, the pieces of a split comet hit Jupiter, producing dramatic explosions in the atmosphere. The individual fragments were numbered with the letters from A to W.
On which date (PP) in July 1994 did the W-fragment hit this planet (in Universal Time)?
Hint: you will find a special page about this event which may be accessed from the ESO Homepage. Here there are many links to other sites and also to various texts which will contain this information.
An overview of solar eclipses is maintained at the Catania Astrophysical Observatory (Sicily, Italy)
All solar eclipses are numbered chronologically, according to the standard list of eclipses (Oppolzer's Canon). Theodor Oppolzer was an astronomer who lived from 1841 to 1886 - he made the first complete calculation of more than 8000 solar eclipses, starting at the year -1207 and up to the year 2163.
What is the four-digit number of the total eclipse that will take place on August 11, 1999, and which will be visible in Europe?
Add the four digits of this number. This will give you the two-digit number RJ.
Hint: visit the Catania Observatory Homepage via the `Online Astronomical and Other Resources' (in the `Useful Addresses' Shop).
The ESO Very Large Telescope, which is now being built on Cerro Paranal in Chile, will have several very advanced instruments. One of these will be built in two copies and will be placed on Unit Telescopes nos. 1 and 3.
When used in direct imaging mode, it will reach **.* limiting magnitude during an exposure of 1800 seconds (B-filtre, seeing 0.5 arcsec, point sources with Signal/Noise-ratio = 5, detector read-out noise 5 electrons RMS and calibration accuracy of 5 percent). The limiting magnitude is the astronomical term for the faintest stars which may just be perceived on the image.
Compute the sum of these three digits to get the two-digit number that is equivalent to RE.
Hint: visit the ESO VLT Homepage via `Useful Addresses' (Astronomy On-Line Astronomical Data Shop).
During the eight steps above, you have determined the numerical values of some letters of the alphabet.
Insert the corresponding digits and multiply the following prime numbers to find a seven-digit number: M * IM * RBB * PTR.
By substituting the seven digits of this number with the corresponding seven letters, you will find the name of a well-known astronomical object.
You may check the result by accessing http://www.eso.org/*******.html, where ******* is this name (capital letters).