What’s Happening in September?
The Dark of the Moon Found Us in a Hot Springs Soak in the Wildwood

Wildwood is a very appropriate name for the site of the 18 – 20 September SunTree event.  It is located on some of the very rare plots of private property located inside the vast Gila Wilderness.  As most of you know, the Gila Wilderness was the first wilderness area designated in the United States.  It was established by the Gila Wilderness Act.  It was after the value of protecting wilderness areas was demonstrated that congress revisited the situation and passed The Wilderness Act which allowed for more untouched wilderness areas throughout the United States to be protected as wilderness areas as well.  Not all of the areas were wisely chosen, perhaps, but that is not the subject being considered in this newsletter. 

If you look at a map of the Gila Wilderness, you will see no roads at all.  There is a public highway, however that stabs into the heart of the wilderness.  That highway was allowed to allow public access to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.  Private land along that highway (NM highway 15) remained private and some businesses have become established along that corridor.  One of those is the Wildwood Resort located between the highway and the Gila River.  It can be found at the floor of the canyon of the Gila hidden among the natural cliff bottom trees, shrubs, grasses and fauna. 

The campers found, over the weekend that even though this is private land, very little clearing has been done to the facility.  There are parking areas and open gathering locations in the campground for fire pits, open-air kitchens and picnic tables protected from the rain by a ramada.   All of the campers who commented to me, really liked the facility and suggested that we need to make plans to regularly schedule Wildwood events.

The weekend was a great success even though the SunTree staff weather control guru (and noted interpretive dance primo) had some problems in keeping the weather in control.  On Saturday, for example, we had just about every form of weather condition that is normal for New Mexico with the exception of snow and sand storms.

On that morning, the campers awoke to a pleasant environment (a great change from the overnight rain that most of us slept through) of pre-dawn mists flowing through the trees down the river valley.  Some of that mist obviously came from the hot springs that line the bottom of the canyon, but some of it was natural fog.  The campground was a ethereal wonderland with the sound of the early morning sharp sound of the birds high in the overhead ponderosa pines.  The fog lifted later and still later the sky became that deep blue that can only be seen at high altitude locations.  The sun warmed the campers to the point that after breakfast some decided to take one of the wilderness hiking trails down stream for a few miles.  One thing about wilderness hiking trails is that they are relatively safe for nudists to hike with only their hats, boots and maybe a snack or camera.  Unfortunately, I now return to my previous comment about the staff weather control guru being slightly out of control that day.  Upon reaching a high, very picturesque location overlooking the mountains and canyons, the temperature dropped as did some precipitation.  That is not really comfortable for nude hikers.  The rain fell harder and then the hikers experienced the thrill of nude hiking in a hail storm.  I will stop here and let your imagination continue.

In spite of these setbacks, all (or, at least most) had a great time.

It is unfortunate that our planned houseboat event in cooperation with the Roadrunners did not work out very well.  Had I known that this camping trip would turn out as well as it did, I would have issued an invitation to the Roadrunners to join us in the Gila.  Well, there is always next year.

October Celestial Events

The Hunter, Orion is Planning to Hurl Meteor Weapons Across the Sky 

Evening: You may have been noticing Jupiter in the evening sky through September.  He will stay there in October lording it over all of his subjects.  He will not hang around until dawn this month though.  He seems to be losing a lot of sleep, so by mid-month, Jupiter will be setting by 1:30 AM.  If you want to see him at his best, you should look for him from nightfall to 10 PM. 

Mars will be floating across the sky this month next to the Beehive star cluster.  Mars, now at a respectable magnitude 0.6, has a meeting with the Moon on the night of 11, 12 October, the pair rise just after midnight. 

Morning: Meanwhile, in the predawn eastern sky, 40 minutes before sunrise, Venus will be about 15 degrees above the eastern horizon, with Mercury visible below it for the first twelve days of the month. 

At that same time, Mercury and Saturn will be getting together for some conversation on 8 October, 10 degrees high, with Mercury brighter. 

Wanting to see if he is being talked about, Saturn, on 10 October, Saturn plans to horn in on a Venus conversation that she is planning with Mercury. He is rudely planning to float between Mercury and Venus. 

A couple of days later, on 13 October, Venus and Saturn will get together to trade information on what was really discussed in those conversations.  That meeting will take place at about 15 degrees above the horizon, with lonely Mercury below.  The Moon joins the party on 16 October. 

Just before dawn in the southern skies, you might catch the meteors which are the children of Comet Halley.  This meteor shower steps on stage around 15 October and stays there until just before Halloween (probably around 29 October).

The peak of their performance will be on 20 - 22 October.  Look for Orion in the southern sky before sunrise.  You should recognize his bright belt of stars.  The Orionid Meteor shower has several radiants (apparent source) aroung the famous hunter.  This shower tend to be somewhat unpredictable.  At times the most spectacular performances happen a day or two after the peak period. 

The "traditional" Orionid meteors leave long streaks behind them as they move across the sky.  Sometimes nothing happens for ten minutes or so, then a whole family of meteors fire across the sky. 

This shower is also known to occasionally have some spectacular exploding meteors. 

Another querky thing about the Orionid Meteor Shower is that just as during one night of observing you can see what I described before as long lulls then intense activity.  Likewise, the Orionid shower sometimes will have additional peak nights prior to or after the “official” peak nights.

In 2006, one of the brightest meteors in the shower streaked across the sky leaving a trail that did not fade for a full six minutes.

If you happen to see some meteors streaking across the sky in the wrong direction, don’t worry, it sometimes happens this time of the year.  They are not attempting to avoid the meteor police, they are just members of a whole different shower family.  In spite of what you may hear on the evening news about meteor showers, they are not subject to formal scheduling.  As has been mentioned in previous editions of this newsletter, the meteors are the dusty remainders along the previous paths of comets (Halley in this case, we think).  Sometimes these comet cow paths move in somewhat close to each other and the early  or late meteors of other showers make an attempt at getting notoriety during the performance of a famous shower which will probably make the 6 o’clock news.