FEBRUARY MONTHLY MEETING

February 8, 2004

Article and Images by Allen Yu

The ALP held its february meeting on February 8th at 7pm at  Alice Villa-Real's place.  Present during the meeting were: Alice Villa-Real, Rich Pijuan, Oscar Lei and wife, Mac Libid, Angie Tan, Melissa Bata, Cherry Cheng, Edmund Rosales, Allen Yu, and ALP newest member, Atty. Renato del Rosario.

Dinner was served at 7:30pm ala festivita de panciteria and manoks aplenty.  They feasted on 4 kinds of noodle dishes and two ways of eating chicken ala savory and andoks.  Desserts were also serve as well.

The meeting officially started at 9pm, with ALP treasurer Allen making a recap of  last year's big events of mars, to the caliraya yearender trip, then to the successful Mars landing of Spirit and Opportunity, the upcoming two comets this summer, the venus transit and its scientific significance in the history of astronomy, and lastly,  the May Total Lunar Eclipse.  He also touched on the first few books of the ALP library. Some of the books were now on the hands of fellow ALPers Mac Libid, Melissa Bata, etc. 

Edmund touched on the topics on the start of his career as professional astronomer of UP NISMED, introduced Edwin and Imelda to the rest of the ALPers, his daily experiences with teachers of various sectors in the proper dissemination of astronomy education to the public..Socrates' death anniversary in this coming NAW week. 

Allen then reitereated the need to start training now, in imaging and observations in time to prepare oneself for the comets and transit ahead.  NAW celebrations for ALP will include an open house observatory viewing at UP-NISMED on February 20 courtesy of Edmund Rosales.  The observatory will open till midnight only. Everything worthwhile to observe in the sky like Saturn and Jupiter , Orion Nebula , Pleiades, etc would had been observed already by midnight.

ALP will close their simple celebration of NAW by having a stargazing party under the dark skies of Buso-Buso , Antipolo.

Jun texted the whole group, wishing all the best regards from the other side of the world :)  Atty. del Rosario presented to the group his new baby, a Stellarview Night Hawk 80mm refractor with an assortment of  1.25" and 2" eyepieces and many impressive paraphernalia, much to the delight of everyone aspiring to have a good instrument. Upon seeing the new toys of Atty del Rosario,   the group heard Allen's jaw dropped to the ground. :) LOL

Telescope making was also touched, as there was a concern on equipping the rest of the ALPers with their personal toys to make the most of this year's exciting first half.  Some  telescopes were also up for sale such as   Russell Limcangco's 90mm Orion refractor (OTA only) and Jun Lao's Discovery 90mm shortube with equatorial mount.  These by far, the instruments available for ALPers who are interested to acquire.

Afterwards, some  off-topic discussions include the care of dogs and cats, courtesy of Oscar Lei and wife, Shadow, the big black labrador in the household of Alice Villa-Real shook hands (i mean paws) with everyone in the meeing :)  Alice sharing her bird collection (images) as a new found hobby so accessible especially in places like Canyon Woods and her backyard.  Alice is becoming a avid birder as well as  she can now identify bird chirpings as that of Euroasian, Canadian, Alaskan, Korean ...etc... :)

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