The Family Tree
Volume 11, Number 7 October 2004
A Publication of the SunTree Travel Club
SunTree Travel Club is an affiliate of The American Association for Nude Recreation
(AANR), AANR-West, the International Naturist Federation
and The Naturist Society

Thought for the Month:
"If you don't think too good, don't think much." 
Ted Williams 

The SunTree Traveler

What Happened in September

Hurricanes in September
The clubs of Florida have not had a good September. At the time of this writing, I have heard no news of the status of any clubs following the latest attack. The report prior to this latest one was that the clubs had some damage, but nothing major. That may have changed now. I suspect that there will be some news in the AANR Bulletin soon.

Wine Festival
The SunTree event over the Labor Day weekend was considered by most of the participants to be one of the best that we have had in some time. Part of that had (in my opinion) to do with the trip to the State Wine Festival itself. It made a great activity for the SunTree gang to do together.

A major part however was the hospitality of the host in Rio Rancho in her newly reclaimed home with that fantastic hot tub. In that tub, the SunTree folks renewed an old custom of satellite watching in the dark of the night. It is truly amazing how many can be seen with the naked eye when there is little light pollution.

Alamogordo pool event
The end of season pool closing party at in Alamogordo was a very nice time hampered only by the swimming pool jumping the gun on the party goal by developing a leak prior to the event. It, unfortunately had to be closed during the SunTree happening. The hot tub, however was operating on all cylinders and there was enough food for the SunTree eating team to forget that there was anything else going on.

Organ pool event
The September pool event in Organ was a pleasant one with a number of visitors from the far reaches of the country dropping by to enjoy the weather, the yard and pools. One of the visitors was not a nudist/naturist, but a reporter who interviewed the participants for an article for a monthly newspaper. This article should be published about the same time as this newsletter. If you get a chance, pick up a copy of the October issue of the Desert Exposure (on the newsstands on 1 October) to see what sort of impression we make/made on the civilized world.

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Events This Month

Early Autumn Soak at Faywood Hot Springs (2 - 3 October)
Since this event should take place about the time that most of the members will be getting this newsletter, there is no need to expend much space in describing it. The event will be a camping trip, but it can be a Saturday day event for those unprepared to camp out. There will be a Saturday evening potluck.

October Celestial Events

Another Month of Early Morning Activities
We have another month where all of the planets seem to be hiding from us. You have to be up before dawn to see most of them this month, but it is well worth the trouble. Venus is fantastic this month as her newly appointed position as the morning "star". She rises in the east before the break of dawn and lords over the sky. She has a nice companion during early October when the real star, Regulus joins her for a duet singing to the awakening Earthlings.

Saturn can be seen to the right of Venus during the early parts of October. If you can pick out Saturn, look higher in the sky where you can see those ski fanatics, Castor and Pollux, the twins from the Gemini family. Saturn gets up a little earlier each morning so that by Halloween, it will be rising before midnight. Even at that time, the best viewing is just before dawn. If you have some good binoculars, you can get a fantastic view of Saturn.

On the other side of Venus in the morning sky, you can see Jupiter at sunrise. As the month goes on, it moves closer to Venus. Also later in the month, you will be able to see a dim Mars just below Jupiter and to the left. It is dim mostly because by the time that it rises, the morning sky will be getting bright in preparation for the rising of our own personal star at dawn.

About the time that the SunTree folks are conducting their frigid water fight at the mid-month club event in Organ, the moon will be dark and the October view of the Milky Way streak across the sky will be amazing.

If we had planned a 13 October event for a camping trip to the beaches of Nome, AK (or a 14 October event in Siberia), we could have had a great view of a partial solar eclipse. We did not think about that when we made our plans. Maybe next time. We can sort of make up for it if you want to show up a little early for our Halloween event at Faywood Hot Springs. On 27 October, there will be a fine total eclipse of the Moon that night. The SunTree scheduling office has penciled this in with the umbral phase starting at 7:14 PM and totality beginning at 8:23 PM MDT. At that time, the Moon should turn coppery red.

The moon will probably give us a bad night for a good view of the Orionid Meteor shower in the predawn hours of 21 & 22 October. There have not been many meteors who have signed up for this year's shower anyway. It might be worth trying to see, if you happen to be up looking for Venus and Saturn those mornings. You might just want to wait for the Geminid shower in December, they are planning a much bigger show and they have it planned to last all night on a night that the moon should not be much of a problem (13 - 14 December).

That is all that I can think of for this month, fellow lunatics.

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