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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month Notice The SunTree Traveler
After the holidays in Alamogordo This year the event was more subdued than is normal for this event possibly due to conflicting events which drew away some of our more loquacious members. It was a very pleasant weekend for all participants.
February Club Doings There will be a potluck meal on Saturday night, so plan to bring a dish of that interesting recipe that you always wanted to try out on some cooperative but innocent diners. Be sure to call Faywood Hot Springs to reserve your cabin, RV hookup space or campsite. Fanatic’s Ski Event Those of us who are fanatic optimists and believe that someday soon, snow will actually fall on the mountains are still planning to ski this month. As this newsletter is being written, the slopes of Ski Apache are not really covered. In fact, only the beginner areas are open currently. Within the members of the club there has been an amazing and enthusiastic lack of interest in this event. Now if only those people in the Northwest who are probably totally sick of precipitation this winter could only adjust the flow our way, we could all be happy. For those of you who do not ski, you must realize that the lack of snow in the mountains will result in a lack of water in the lakes this summer. Think major winter storm (in the mountains, of course)! Contact SunTree to express your keen interest in joining us for this event.
The Celestial Population Gets Sirius On 6 February, Mercury will begin its best showing of the year and can be easily seen in the fading evening twilight especially before the 21. Use your binoculars to view orange Mercury very close to dim-green Uranus on the 14. After that, it reaches its greatest separation from the Sun. By 24 February, it is setting almost 1 and a half hours after sunset so you can pick it out for a long time into the dying twilight. On 11 February, in case you are wondering, that is Saturn just to the upper right of the Moon (one day prior to the full Moon) Once again, Venus is planning on stealing the show during February. On 17 February, Venus is at its greatest brilliance of the year in the morning sky, rising two to two and a half hours before the sun. Venus will reach magnitude -4.6 this day. You should be able to see it in the sky long after the sun tries to overpower it. Saturn will be high overhead at sunset and should be out all night. On 20 February in the morning, you can find Jupiter just above the Moon. The Moon is at its closest to the Earth for the year when its surface is only 217,000 miles from ours, on the 27 February. Only a stone’s throw. You may notice that the moon will be visiting a more northerly part of the sky during this year. It starts its tour early in February when it starts moving from its normal pathway toward the north. I do not talk too much about real stars very often, but this month there are a couple that will be really spectacular. I think that by now, most of the readers of this know how to find Orion the hunter. This month, you can find him high in the southern sky. You will, of course notice the three bright stars that make up his belt. If you follow the line of that belt down and toward your right (the east) you will see the bright dogtag on the neck of Canis Major. That is Sirius, the brightest star in our sky (other than our own personal star, the sun). If you look up and to the right of that belt (toward the head of that hunter) you will see Betelgeuse and beyond that, you should recognize those crazy twins Castor and Pollux who I talked a lot about last winter. Following the belt of the hunter in the other direction toward the top of the sky, you can see a bright (though not as bright as Sirius) Aldebaran, the bright red eye of that bull Tarus. © 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2008 |
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What Happened in January
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