Halloween at Mira Vista RESORT
SunTree went to Mira Vista RESORT for our annual event on the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. The members of Mira Vista were there is lower than usual numbers as were the SunTree members. There might be several reason for this. The weather was the most obvious. The weather on Thursday and Friday was fantastic, but the breezes picked up on Saturday ,making egress from the conversation pool an act of bravery. A reason for the low SunTree attendance could also have been due to our scheduling of an event there on Halloween, only a couple of weeks earlier. You will notice when the January newsletter is distributed that I have left the Halloween event on the calendar but have dropped the pre-Thanksgiving event. Comments on this will be welcome.

I had an interesting situation when I was asked by a local why I would drive “all the way from New Mexico” to go to an event at Mira Vista. I did not realize that was a long trip, but when I met some of the others there, I found that I was a local. The Midwest was highly represented as well as Alberta and British Columbia for the weekend. I guess that it is just a matter of perception. There were also some visitors staying at the resort who were participants at El Tour De Tucson bicycle charity run. Not all of the 6,300 bikers were staying at Mira Vista RESORT, but there were several staying there. I met some from Hawai’i as well as from California, Colorado and even some from all the way from Arizona.

For a light turnout, this was still an enjoyable weekend.

What’s Happening in December? 

Between the holidays in Las Cruces
Sandy and Larry have invited the SunTree folks to a “between the holidays” event at their home in Las Cruces This year it will be on 10 December. There will be a brand new hot tub spa in their back yard awaiting the SunTree Olympic soaking team to inaugurated it.

This event will be a potluck get together. As has become a tradition during this event at the previous venue, we have a blind gift exchange wherein all are asked to bring a gift of less that $10.00 value for a person of the same sex (man's gift given by a man, woman's gift given by a woman). The gifts will be numbered and each attendee will draw a number from a hat to identify the gift that they are to receive. As it turns out, most of the gifts are serious and thoughtful gifts, though it is not unknown for some of the gifts to be “gag” gifts.

Let them know

If you are planning to attend please give them an email at or leave a message with SunTree call 575 522 6284 to let them know how many of you to expect, when you plan to arrive and what dish you plan to bring for the potluck meal (does it need to be heated/cooled/frozen/micro-waved/decontaminated?). If you need to stay overnight, you can ask for recommendations for nearby lodging. They do have one bedroom but plan to offer it based upon the distance traveled to the event.

They are expecting for people to show up around 1 PM on the afternoon of the tenth.

(Note: I am changing the format of this section again. A few years ago, I received a suggestion from one of the readers who wanted me to separate out the morning events from the evening events for sky watchers. I have had another suggestion that sort of builds on that one. This one is to make the events more chronological while keeping the notation of morning and evening. This month is a trial for that format. Any comments or suggestions will be welcome (in this or any other section of the newsletter).

General through-the-month comments:
This month, Earth’s two nearest neighbors becoming more obvious in the evening twilight. Venus has been creeping higher in the sky from her first appearance in the evening after her voyage behind the Sun from her morning home. She will be moving from her early month position about 10 degrees up from the horizon doubling that height by the end of the month.

Mars will be rising before midnight and gains a half magnitude from 0.7 to a bright 0.2.

Jupiter will fade a bit but still dominates the night.

Events:

6 Evening Bright Jupiter will be to the right, lower of the waxing gibbous Moon

10 Morning at 7:36 AM the Moon will be full and the western US will be able to see a total lunar eclipse

13-14 Morning That big, fat shining Moon will do its best to washout the participants in the annual Geminid meteor shower, but you will be able to see some of the brighter guys streaking the sky.

14- 28 Morning That bright “star” in the morning sky about 45 minutes before sunrise is our little neighbor, Mercury.

19-20 Morning Saturn and the star, Spica will be lit from above by the crescent Moon on 19 and from below on 20 December.

24 Evening Venus will be to the left of the Moon on Boxing Day, beginning a glorious apparition that will peak in late winter and spring.

26 Evening that thin crescent Moon will be visited by beautiful Venus in the twilight hours after sunset.

Winter begins with the solstice at 10:30 PM on 21 December (People in Easern Standard Time and points east from there will celebrate the Winter Solstice on 22 December).