Last December 17, the ALP had their monthly meeting /  Christmas party at the residence of Alice Villa-Real.  Members whoe were present were James Kevin Ty and his wife Charito Ty and son Kendrick Cole Ty; Alice Villa-Real, Allen Yu, Jett Aguilar, Eric Africa and his wife Josephine as well as his sister Susan and mother Evelyn; Dante Cruz, Alexander Loinaz, Joel Munoz, Brian Davis, Jomar Lacson, Hans Cerdenia, Henry So, Lea Visaya and friend Lin Vargas , Irving Raymundo and wife Rosie and children Jeri and Jerald, Michelle Lampa and her brother Michael, Rafael Lunar, Kristy Anne Abello, John Lawrence Uy and Tommy Tan.

The meeting started at around 4:30pm with US-based ALPer Eric Africa giving a powerpoint presentation entitled "choosing a camera based on one's astro-imaging goals."  The topic touches on the different types of cameras that are available in today's market.  Eric first started on the compact point and shoot digicam, then later also discuss the pros and cons of each type of cameras from the compact point and shoot to other cameras sich as DSLR, webcam,video cameras as well as the CCD cameras.  Eric then later concentrated on what he is using, an SBIG ST-6303E CCD camera, which together with his Takahashi FSQ-106 on EM-200 Tenma mount, he was able to get very beautiful deep sky images.  He also touches on the different image processing softwares available in the market.

After the lecture, Eric presented a second bonus presentation on the best Deep Sky Objects he had captured.  ALP members were awed by the stunning great images that Eric was able to image over the years.

Afterwards, ALP president James Kevin Ty also made a powerpoint presentation on the 2006 Annual report of the various activities as well as the celestial events that ALPers were able to document in 2006. Then a 15 minute break was done so that the participants of the 3rd ALP Astro-Quiz Contest can relax and get prepared and also try to unseat 2 consecutive annual winner Jett Aguilar.  It was also time for members to renew their membership as well as elect 4 board of directors for 2007.   The ALP implemented the 5-4-4 format so that qualified members can try their luck for election against incumbent directors.  For this year,the 4 directors that were up for re-election were Edward Tan, Charito Ty, Jonathan Ty and Alfonso Uy.  They were to seek re-election against new nominees in Jett Aguilar, Melisa Bata, Jomar Lacson, Angie Tan and Raymund Sarmiento.

For this year's contest, ALP president James prepare a series of questions that tackle on the practical aspect of astronomy such as observations and astrophotography topics.  It was  different from the past 2 year's questions which are mostly centered on general astronomy as well as space science and cosmology.  This year's participants were Jett Aguilar, Dante Cruz, Irving Raymundo, Jomar Lacson, Brian Davis, Alexander Loinaz, Kristy Anne Abello, Michelle Lampa, Eric Africa , Angie Tan, and Rafael Lunar.

The first elimination round consist of 10 questions and the top 6 will qualify to the next round.  After the conclusion of the first round, Jett, Eric, Dante, Irving, Kristy and Michelle made it to the next round.

The second round elimination is also a 10 question round wherein the top 4 will moved into the next round. Jett, Eric, Irving and Dante made it to the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal round is also a 10 question round where the top 2 will fight it out for the championship as well as take home a new 10x50 binoculars.   At the end of the round, defending champion Jett and Eric were left to contest for the crown.

The championship round includes a 5 difficult and tricky questions wherein Jett was able to beat out Eric by a hair with a final score of 4-3 and retain his crown for 3 consecutive years!   Congratulations Jett!

Then the members had their dinner as well as to have time to chat on astro issues as well as personal topics .  James then announce the results of the election.  The new elected directors were Jett Aguilar, Raymund Sarmiento, Alfonso Uy and Edward Tan.  The rest of the nominees can run for election again next year.

Lastly, the exchange gift portion was handled by Angie Tan and the corresponding gifts were given to corresponding numbers picked by ALPers. Then a group picture was taken before the conclusion of the meeting.  Merry Christmas and a Happy ALP Year !!!

ALPers posed for posterity after the conclusion of the Christmas Party. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY ALP YEAR !!!

For more inages of the event, click here.

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