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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month The SunTree Traveler
February Ski Weekend Cancelled We were hoping to get together another “Ski Event” in late February. We did received indications from SunTree members of interest in this event but the weather has not really cooperated. There was some additional snow in January that greatly improved the snow conditions at Ski Apache, but as of the writing of this newsletter there are only the beginner runs, a few intermediate runs and a single expert run open. It is anticipated that there will be more improvement as the season continues, but who wants to spend a whole weekend on beginner runs? If conditions do improve and if there is interest, we might want to squeeze in a March ski date (who wants to ski when it is cold anyway?). Meanwhile, our February calendar event has been saved by the generosity of the Elephant Butte contingent. See the next news item.
We have been invited to Elephant Butte for a pre-Valentine's Day event on 9 February. This will be a potluck event with optional hot tub soaking. Be sure to contact SunTree (see the contact information on this website) so that we can let the hosts know that you plan to be there and when. Also let us know what you plan to contribute to the potluck meal and if it will need to be heated/cooled.
As is usual with the January issue of our newsletter, we have updated the calendar of events (See What’s Happening) for the year. For the last three years, this prognostication was assembled using the input of the members sometime in late summer or autumn. For reasons beyond the control of anybody in the club, that coordination never happened. For that reason, the calendar is somewhat sparsely populated with events. The ones that are included are the result of some suggestions which SunTree received from some members and others are “guesswork” formed around the schedule of previous years. We apologize that a firmer schedule was not developed to help you with your planning, but we anticipate that club members will be proposing events and venues soon and the calendar will fill in. Stay tuned.
Meeting of Venus and Jupiter, an Edgy Saturn and a Total Lunar Eclipse (but not for us). Morning: As you may remember from last month, Venus and Jupiter have been approaching each other during the whole month of January. They are now, on 1 February, about as close together as they will get. This spectacle is best seen around 6:30 AM. During the month, Venus will sink lower and lower toward the horizon while Jupiter will be higher and higher in the sky each morning. On 4 February, the crescent Moon hovers below the pair of them. As Venus gets lower each morning it will have a brief meeting with Mercury from 24 to 29 February, the duo will only be 5 degrees above the horizon at 6 a.m. The brightening of the morning sky from the rising Sun may make them hard to see. Evening: Directly overhead in February (around 8 PM early in the month and about a half hour after sunset late in the month) there will be two bright “stars”. The redish one is our favorite warmonger, Mars. The other one is a true star. It is called Capella and is more directly overhead. Capella is in the constellation Auriga (which I thought was a type of lettuce). Mars will be very bright early in the month, and can be easily seen, however, as he moves eastward through the month, he loses half of his light. That is our fault since our spaceship Earth is racing away from Mars at 66,000 mph. Saturn, will be at its closest point of the year, reaches opposition (which means that it is exactly opposite the Sun with respect to us) on 24 February at magnitude 0.2. I normally do not include much information in this section of the newsletter other than naked-eye observable sky objects, but I do want to mention that if you do have a good pair of binoculars or, even better a tripod mounted telescope, Saturn is sort of interesting this month. It will rise in the east soon after sunset. The rings will be very close to “edge-on” to us this month. If you can pick it out in the early evening sky, you should be able to see the Cassini Division (the black gap between the outer narrow ring, A and the wide inner ring, B) if you look to either side near the ansae (the apparent “points” of the rings). A total lunar eclipse on 20 February will be visible from North America. If you happen to be in the eastern part of the united states (as far west as St. Louis) you will be able to see the full (umbral) eclipse in the evening, however, if you live in the vicinity of the US where most of the SunTree members live, the eclipse will occur right at Moonrise and will only be a penumbral one. It is unlikely that you will see any difference in the brightness of the Moon, so I only mentioned it here for those of you who might be visiting Hoboken or some other eastern city.
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2008 |
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February Club Doings