Starry, Starry Night Massachusetts, United States
By cporth on 26-Jun-02. Waypoint GC68FE

Had a tip off about this cache ages ago...
Took awhile, on and off, to work out the locations...
Emailed owner awhile back, no reply. Pretty sure we have the answers right!
Thanks

email sent - answers confirmed as correct - which I must say surprised me - nearly as much as the quick response...[^]
cheers cporth and TFTC

After quite a bit of research, I got permission to log this one. While doing the research, I noted something interesting which had never occurred to me before - the constellation is quite familiar to me (I've had a bit of the amateur astronomy bug before), but I've never really seen the connection between the zodiac depiction of it (i.e. the figure it represents) and the actual star patterns as I see it. While looking at a star chart with the dots (stars) connected, I got a bit of a shock to see a star, that I knew well, in the wrong position - until I realized that all of the zodiac signs are drawn as they are seen from the northern hemisphere, so I (in the southern hemisphere) always see them "upside-down" and therefore they don't really look like the pictures you tend to see books, etc.

Thanks for the cache cporth

After a quick trip to Massachussets (is it spelled right?) I came back with all the answers...

Thanks for the cache !
I know where Walden Pond is now !

Lots of fun! Thanks for the cache.

The wife and I , Kat6 got together and finally finished this one. thanks for the time we spent together on this!

Very cool and fun! Thanks!

I spent a rainy afternoon learning about the stars, art and music. Thanks for the lesson.
Donna~The Haddad's Pit Crew

Enjoyed all the aspects of this one. Took a little clarification to get one answer complete. TFTC 1005

Great cache. Thanx for the entertaining and educational hunting. Nice associations
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/ | Sara and Hugo

Wow - This was pretty neat to stumble through! Not sure anyone else would have been able to blend all these subjects together as well as you have. Very creative - I'm envious that my brain does not function this way! Learned a lot and recalled some fond memories too. I will have to call 'the butterfly' by its proper name from now on, too! (I keep saying I am going to learn the constellations - guess I have inadvertantly started...) Thanx for the fun cache! Moose & Squirrel, Spirit Lake, ID.

This was a fun cache. I approached it a little too literally, taking the general astronomical consensus for the constellation rather than looking at what was before my eyes. But after coming to my senses, I met a sidewalk astronomer who brought his 17 inch telescope to my hometown and gave me a closer view of the Messier object that I had been reading about. I had not seen that one for awhile, so it was good to get reacquainted with a good view of it.

I had to have two stabs at this one, as the first time I submitted my answers I was missing some detail. A bit of googling (many thanks to Google!), Memory-Map, Google-Earth and other web based map services and I was all sorted.

Logging cache with permission from the owner. I learnt LOTS on this one, so thank you very much!

Stuey

A nice tour of the constellation and music. Thank you

Another excuse to enjoy Google Earth! Finding the names was tricky but got there in the end, the rest was plain sailing and answers confirmed by email. Thanks for taking me on the journey.

Thanks Chris this one was a challenge. I really enjoyed this one.

I enjoyed this entertaining and educational cache! In fact I had to research something that I once knew but had forgotten, thanks for the reminder!

Thank you. I just have to see the stars in Massachusetts with my own EYES .

Looks like I didn't have my EYES connected to my brain at first, but finally saw the light and made it through the answers for this well planned out cache. Nice reminder of recent music history, art history, and astrology. Thanks for the cache.

Thanks for the virtual tour of an area I would love to visit again someday.
Wienerdog

Ad astra per aspera.

In the course of doing this puzzle, I learned that stars have Latin, Greek, and Arabic names. I'm sure they have Hindu, Chinese, and Amerindian names as well, but those didn't seem to be on any web sites I could read.

Thanks for the instructive mix of Massachusetts geography, astronomy, music, and art history.

Tracked down the details, sent an email, got confirmation that I was correct. TFTC.

Had a great time solving this one, especially the parts done while on company time! Have received verification that my answers are correct, and just got the cache owner's blessing to log a find...Thanks for the cache, as well as the fun journey through the galaxy and the Internet!

Got it easily enough, but thought that when sending the answers you would get the coordinates to a real cache. Anyway, my stats for mystery caches is now up by 1.
Thanks. The 'hunt' was fun, I did have to look up a couple stellar things but I knew some of it already.

What a fun cache. I handled the "heavenly" navigation while the Princess maneuvered through the "renaissance" to the final location. Once there, the cache was easy to identify! TFTC

Finally done. Got through all the answers pretty quickly, except for one pesky one. Finally with some nudges from the owner and help from another cacher I was able to put this one to bed. I've been looking at this one on my page one search area forever! TFTC

This was an enjoyable puzzle to solve. I worked on it as the days of summer vacation dwindled away. Then, the usual insanity (aka school) commenced, and the puzzle went into a drawer with all of my other forlornly-unsolved-puzzles (you know how it is in September...). I recently completed an archeological dig through the aforementioned drawer and was pleased to discover I was only one answer short. I made a guess and was wrong, after which I plotted my way to the correct solution. Thanks for the very entertaining cache, cporth!

A very entertaining and educational cache - we really enjoyed solving it (Internet is fantastic ...)! / Sakletarna (of Sweden)

Great cache, we really enjoyed working on it. Some things we knew, others were intuitive, and others had us racking our brains for a while. All in all an excellent hunt, it even got us to dig out our star chart. (We bought it after moving to Hawaii and realizing the skies look very different at 21 degrees north.) TFTC!

I really enjoyed how you tied all of this together. At least now I will be able to recognize one constellation! Thanks for a fun puzzle.

This one was a lot of fun to find and figure out. Definately made me want to get me a telescope and sit out on a hill somewhere. I miss doing that. Thanks much for the cache!!!

Thorny1

Nice job of tying together some otherwise unrelated items. Some of the stuff I basically knew, but others took some digging. A very impressive job by cporth of mapping the "starry eyes" to WGS coordinates. That must of took some work!
TFTC
Also dropping a virtual TB "Bobbin Along".

Thanks for the great lessons learned while doing this cache!
Some parts brought back some good ole' memories!
BBB

Finally. Thanks for the reborn interest in the solar system and a flashback to music that was popular as I was growing up.

Really great cache.
TFTC,
Better Half

This was really fun and educational to do. Thanks to cporth for a very fine cache, and a nice email.

What can I say? This has to be one of the most well rounded and educational puzzle caches around!! I had a blast with this one-the music, the art, the vastness of space. Thanks so much for the fun-now I gotta plan me-self a physical trip to the area-been wanting to see Walden and Thoreau's Ghost anyway.

73 HJG, de KS4BG!

Very enjoyable way to find a cache on a steamy Florida day, too hot to venture out into the saw palmetto and skeeters. Thank you for the creative hide and seek. Cake Art, we could have collaborated on this one. Thanks IK for the cool tip.

Thanks, IK, for pointing this one out in the Starry Night by pazooter log. (visit link) Got my confirmation email back from cporth. My compliments for combining a few of my favorite things to construct this cache. Quite enjoyable. ©¿©¬

Lots of fun working my way through this one. Thanks!

Did this a while ago, but finally got my confirmation email! Really enjoyed this cache! Thanks so much!

since this is a locationless virtual type of a cache we are dropping a virtual TB in here for the next cachers who logs this.

this was a nice cache for a hot week.....nice test of my googling abilites....TFTF

Woo, I just got the e-mail that says I have all the answers correct so I'm logging my find. Thanks for this interesting couch cache!

Very cool! I learned a lot and had fun. Thanks for stretching my brain.

Cool little puzzle - especially 'cause I can log it all the way from Tucson, Arizona
T4TC!

Fun variation on geocaching. We learned a few things. Thanks for the puzzle.

Found out about this one from a fellow cacher and I love doing puzzle caches involving all of the above. It did take me three virtual road trips to MA to get all the "eyes" right. Had everything else correct. I enjoyed doing the research even tho I knew some of the answers, but googled them anyway and learned a lot more. Thanks for a great learning cache.

The Caching Nuts
the "nuttier nut" studied this one
Coopersburg PA

How nice to come across this puzzle. I did the squinting but my partner in crime, Fuzzyku new all of the answers, not me. She really, really, really enjoyed this one. And one of the few when we get to come back no all covered with muds!

She be da brains...or is if we got it correct. We both learned a bunch! All kinds of good stuff and makes me want to visit one day.

Took the customary 2 attempts for this one but finally got approval to log it. I found it to be very interesting as I've heard the parts of it before and didn't know how they were all related. I especially enjoyed this as I'm offshore now and could complete it from here. Thanks cporth for the cache and your patience with with me.

Had fun researching the answers for this one and learning some new information about astonomy, art and music history along the way. I guess I got lucky since I got all the answers correct on my first try. TFTF!

15:00 UTC
I saw this cache mentioned on the SEPAG (visit link) website and thought I'd give it a try on a dark and rainy night. Well, the dark and rainy night came, but it took me the requisite two tries to satisfy cporth's requirements. It all comes down to the Eyes, doesn't it? The rest of the puzzle was pretty straightforward; I've been an amateur astromomer for a long time (though goecaching has eaten into my observing time)...TFTC!

It took me two tries to get this even though I had the right answers from the start. I didn't read one of the questions carfully enough. But it was a fun cache to workout and it is well thoughtout and very interesting.

Good Going!

I am also using this cache to help further along a couple of fellow SEPAG member's racing bugs.

This was a fun puzzle that included my favorite things: art, astronomy, music and GEOCACHING! The recipe here is a fine blend. You served up a good one, Chris! Thanks for the exercise in thinking, learning and seeing.

Thanks for this cache. It brought back many memories - of gazing at the night sky with my Dad and the songs. I found myself singing as I worked on this. Don't mind admitting knowing them when they were new. I learned a lot and was delighted to see some of what I'd found out tonight upon arriving home.

This one took me two attempts to 'find'. I had a log of fun with it and enjoyed using some of my online caching tools to help find the answers. I learned some stuff I didn't know. Thanks for the fun cache!

Hard to talk about the puzzle without giving anything away, so my log will be pretty brief. I saw a discussion on the boards that mentioned this cache and thought I would give it a try. I didn't have too much trouble with most of it, had a little bit of a time finding the answers to the extra credit questions. I was glad to have Expert GPS, it helped me with the seven coords and to identify the constellation. Thanks for the interesting puzzle!

Chris - Thank you for this challenging and fun multi-faceted puzzle. I don't want to show my age, but I remember the music selections when they were new.

This cache was both fun and interesting. I also like astronomy so when I heard about the cache I had to do it. Thanks for a great cache cporth.

Did all my research and learning on this back in December, even answering the extra credit questions correctly. But as has apparently been the case with others, the EYES eluded me. This was just like a regular cache for me in that I made it harder than it needed to be. Haha!

I followed up my 1st guess on the eyes, which was kind of ridiculous, with a new guess last night. I still wasn't sure I was even on the right course, but it turns out that I was. Thanks very much cporth for an interesting and educational experience! I enjoyed it very much. Now if I can just get this tune out of my head...

It is so hard for me to see the stars at night living close to the center of a metropolitan area. But when I go to the country I always look up and enjoy the marvels that are there for all to see. Thanks for the great hunt. An enjoyable bit of research to learn much and verify the few things of this quest that I actually knew.

With hip-deep snow on the ground thanks to the blizzard, it seemed like the perfect time to go for this one. Thanks for dreaming up this novel cache - I had a great time working it out!

Most of the answers were quite easy. The first on took me a few days, and a few emails till I finally clued in. Eventually found it. Thanks for the cache and some more trivia to stuff into my too full head. I love finding out little tid bits of information.

We had a lot of fun solving this one. Got one answer wrong on the first try, but then got it right the second time. Thanks for the adventure!
Team Ferret
Mark & Terre

Gosh, I was starting to see stars day and night until I got question B right! Okay, I had trouble with A too but worked it out eventually. I started tackling this one back in November and I was ambitiously trying to work out the bonus questions too but that never happened. Thanks for this challenging cache.

After some careful thinking last night I figured out the most complicated way to try solve this puzzle and then proceeded to hit my head against a brick wall (repeatedly). Today, common sense took over and things went surprisingly smooth. Even managed to get the extra challenge right. I enjoyed the challenge, TFTC

What a great way to close the year!

I'm afraid I grew up with these songs. YIKES!

Thank you for a very creative cache.

Eagle Dad

I stumbled across this cache while looking at nearby mystery caches for inspiration, and figured I'd start trying to figure out the clues in order to be able to locate the cache. It was only after completing all of the clues that I realized that the entire cache was solving the clues and that I wouldn't actually need to go traipsing around the woods to locate the cache!

Thanks for the puzzle cache, I had fun researching the items on the net and learning a little along the way!

This was a fun puzzle. As a former science teacher who grew up in the Woodstock era, this puzzle was fairly easy after I superimposed the map. The only Internet research needed was a certain date. My wife and daughter attempted to lead me off track with Josh Groban but my memory is better than that . TFTP!

Thanks for putting this one together . Of course, if I don't get a certain tune unstuck from my pitiful brain, I'll go completely ballistic, but I guess that's not the cache owner's fault, or problem.

Cporth must thing I am a dope.
Do you think I could read the part about the eyes correctly?
I sent three emails and finally got the answers, as it asks on the web page.
If I would have read the web page correctly I would have given him the answers with the first email, and not had him reading and shaking his head.
This is a very educational and interesting cache.
Glad I am a child of the 60's and 70's, made it much easier for me.
Thanks for the searching
Nozzletime & Smudge

11:00 PM First and only find of the day. Just got the results back from the teacher

Sure did my homework on this one, but I got it all right the first time through! Even decided to go for the extra credit, as I enjoy astronomy as well.

Really enjoyed the theme on this puzzle, and doing the research was rewarding in and of itself, the cache made for an extra bonus.

TFTPC cporth! This is probably one of the more enjoyable Puzzles (or caches for that matter) I've done in a while.

thanks for agreat hunt and a favorite musical adventure.
the federation

This was a very nicely planed cache. I love the ones that are set up like this. You get to use your brainpower and reason of thinking. It had me going for a while until I got the cords correct then it all came together. Thank you so much for placing this cache and oking my answer.
legna and sOulbAit

Wow, the EYES really had us going for a while but we finally came up with the right answer! Thanks for a really fun hunt!

Marine Biologist (Rodney & Sandy) #1391

I have to thank CCCooperAgency for putting me on the track of this cache; would never have known about it but for her.

Being that I work in the astronomy field, and have been rather fervently interested in astronomy since I was in 8th grade (more moons ago than I care to think or tell you ), I tackled this one with glee. Spent an hour or so this evening after work while waiting for the mechanic shop to call me back to let me know my car was reparied and ready to go. Got all the answers quickly, even to the EYES, though I didn't realize it at first. Trying to understand that part, like prior cachers, threw me for a bit, but then I realized I was *looking* *too* *deeply*: the answers were already right in front of me - I only had to have EYES to see it!

This is definitely one of my favorite constellations, and the 'swirling cloud' was the first one I turned my brand spanking new OIII filter towards a couple months ago.
Thanks for plotting this out as a cache. I had entertained vague thoughts of doing something kinda sorta along these lines, but never got past the nebulous formation phase in the planning. This'll give me a small kick to return serious thought to my other astro-related cache plannings.

Thanks to fellow geo-friends who encouraged me to work out this one - my husband was a big help as he's the amateur astronomer in the family but the internet research was my contribution. Really odd timing as the geo-kidz just watched the remake of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS and there was a brief clip showing the famous painting you reference.

This was a lot of fun! Thanks for the confirmation.

When reading this cache, it sounded familiar. I remember my son doing this in an art class a few years ago. Got B,C,D without a problem, but had a lot of trouble with A. Finally figured it out after several tries and realizing my error.

Nice cache to do when it gets dark early and it's rainy outside.

As an accounting-type and a software developer-type, we were taking the first question WAY too literally. Our first try at the answers had us with everything correct but those darned EYES! I can't tell you how hard we looked for the EYES until finally I told Mr. Car54 I thought we were looking at the question wrong. Ahhhhh, the light dawned and began to slowly spread through our brains. Mr. Car54 then tracked down the right answer (we hoped) and we sent our second e-mail. We just received confirmation that our turnabout in thinking was correct - whoopee!

This cache was a lot of fun on several levels. It did have one serious drawback, though. Being of an age to actually know the songs used in this cache, we had ourselves a big ol' time looking up the lyrics and then singing them. Our 2 dogs may never recover from the trauma!

TFTC!

What a fun puzzle to solve! Misunderstood what EYES meant at first, then got it right the second time around. Once I figured it out, finding the EYES was the easiest part of the puzzle for me. Needed to do some googling for the CONSTELLATION and the extra credit questions, as I'm not too familiar with that subject. Quite fun when I figured it out, plus I learned something too. Knew most of the answers to VINCENT right away. Part of DON was easy and the rest needed to be googled. I mainly listened to classical music when I was going up, but listened to popular music the year "what he fed" was popular. Thanks for the lesson and the fun armchair cache!

Constilation was easy as was Vincent. A quick web search showed up Don but the one what suprised me was the FAMOUS painting. I never considered that the most famous one. Ol well guess doing Calculas in Art History didn't pay off, well it did but that is another story.
This was a fun cacheless cache to do thanks.
cheers

This mystery was so much fun to solve, thank you very much!
I got the constellation right away, because I have always been interested in astronomy, but Vincent and Don? When I found out about this connection and got the vision of the eyes... Wow! What a great cache!

Wow!! Found out I got 100% even on the Bonus caches.

I have to admit I had NEVER heard the cache title song before until it was sung American Idol. But being the impressionist art lover and being a mythology buff when I was growing up this was a PERFECT cache to me. Combined with the fact that the constallation in question is one of my favorites -- I LOVE THIS CACHE!

Got the ok to log this one, finally, after a false start. I had all but the eyes, and cannot believe I had missed this, once I went back and read this through! Great puzzle, as I am not an astronomy hobbiest, and it made me stretch the brain cells to find it, though the search was quite apparent once I started. The musical portion was very easy for me, as it is one of my stronger areas. Thanks for the cache, and bringing me somewhere, in my mind, that I would not have normally gone!

Just got my permission to log this cache. Enjoyed expanding my mind! Liked the intersection of different disciplines! Was enjoying myself so much that I went ahead and did the extra credit questions too. And my first "find" in Massachusetts! TFTC!

Got the OK to log this one. I started it back in Dec 2002 and got much wrong back then. I kinda sat on it for a long time until recently when I brought it up to Tim of thePetersPack. He started working on it and gave me a finishing clue. But I don't see his find log yet?? I went in the wrong direction in the beginning because of a web site that put my mind into a "this must be it" frame which it wasn't. I also had the unique opportunity to meet "Don" when my company did some work for his home in Maine. Thanks for a cache that can be done without leaving home, and has subject matter which I am interested in.

I enjoyed learning more about my favorite constellation.

Thanks,
Bushwhack Bob

Yeah, got OK from teach. FINALLY got one of Chris's caches!! The first few times I read this one, I was like ' WHAT?'???? Then I finally got what I was supposed to do. Did half before I enlisted Mr's help last night so we could finish up! Learned alot. Many connections I would never have put together. Thanks.

Recieved the OK to post as of this morning.. I had a wonderful time with this cache. I have to admit, this is the type of puzzle cache to be loved. No higher math, no foriegn languages, no code...

All was going well as I plodded to finish this one off when the nasty desire hit.. (Yes, I needed a smoke).. I step outside and see someone at my neighbors car. The chase is on.. I go running after the perp and the get-away car barefoot down the road. Needless to say I did not catch it. Then we wait an hour for the police.. When I get back I am so excited from the chase that I am unsure where I left off... hehe fun night (not).

Again.. thanks for this wonderful cache.

Got the OK to log this today! Excellent cornucopia of various disciplines made for one solid locationless cache, logged all the way from out here in Tucson, Arizona!

Mr Cowspot

Thanks for a great geocache that combines such wonderful and varied areas of human endeavours. It is especially pertinent to bring together the stars and modern-day navigational techniques! After all, where would we be without these celestial guides? Probably still in Europe, wondering if there was more land across that ocean!

Interesting research cache. In the past, I have seen various internet treasure hunts, but this puzzle is the first geocache variant that I have encountered. My thanks goes to the poetic cporth.

in my attempts to answer all the questions I seem to have stumbled over an extra credit opportunity.(wooohooo!! )
thanx for a great cache, I'd have never noticed the links if it weren't for this cache

Thanks Chris for allowing me to post, and creating a fun cache like this.

I finished this just after midnight while listening to Fruitcakes by Jimmy Buffett. You can't do that on a regular cache.

[last edit: 7/24/2003 4:23:16 PM PST]

User's web page
I enjoy solving Chris' puzzlers and he e-mailed permision to post in record time.

This one included some of my favoite topics - maps, music trivia, art, and astronomy. So, naturally I did all seven parts.

I guess we have a similar affinity for esoteric facts.

Dropping off ole Virtual Victor to help out his quest.

This makes a great rainy day cache. Chris gave okay to post with a grade of 100%.

I felt like I was taking an exam or writing a term paper. Good for a 90 degree day. I decided I just don't make it when it comes to music. I also decided that I failed in cryptology. Couldn't figure out the clue. so I ignored it.

[last edit: 8/1/2002 4:35:03 PM PST]

I really enjoyed being able to log a find without going out in the 97degree heat today! A fun, educational internet experience. Found the Roberta Flack question the most challenging! Thanks Chris, we also enjoyed your *X Marks the Spot*, and will be trying a few of your other extremely creative caches soon!!

Sharyn (Wayne and Simon sat this one out)