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The Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) were able to observe and document the occultation of Regulus and the moon which occurred in the early morning hours of December 1, 2007, at the PAGASA observatory in Diliman, Quezon City.

Members present were ALP President James Kevin Ty, Dr. Jett Aguilar, Edgar Ang, and Observations chairman Peter Benedict Tubalinal. They arrived at the observatory at almost midnight and started to setup their equipments for observing and documenting the event. James used his Canon 300D DSLR camera attached to his 4-inch TV101 refractor for still images, and an ATK-1HS II webcam attached on his 60mm f/9 Kenko achromat refractor for video-recording. Jett had setup his 350D DSLR attached to his Takahashi TSA-102 refractor for still images, and piggybacked with a Sony videocam. He also had setup his NexStar 5 with a webcam attached to it. Visual observations were done by Peter and Edgar, using an 80mm f/6 Stellarvue refractor and a 10x50 binoculars respectively.

ALP President James Kevin Ty beside his TV-101 refractor on Vixen GP-DX mount	ALP Vice-President Jett Aguilar beside his Takahashi TSA-102 refractor on Vixen GP-DX mount
ALP Observation Chairman Peter Benedict Tubalinal beside Stellarvue AT1010 refractor on Tele-Pod Mount	ALP member Edgar Ang uses both both a 10x50 binoculars and the Stellarvue refractor to observe the event visually.

They used Kevin's Magellan Pioneer GPS to take time, and even synchronized their watches to it. A few minutes before ingress, Peter and Edgar started observing the star Regulus for visual, James and Jett began taking images as the moon occulted Regulus. After ingress, the team took time out and reviewed the images and timings recorded. Just as the egress came, they made the same procedure in observing and imaging as they patiently await for Regulus to come out. Peter, on the visual observation, relayed to the members the seconds and minutes for audio documentation of time. To view the video of the occultation that was created by Jett, click here. (1.7 MB)

INGRESS

EGRESS

The official timing of occultation by the group were as follows:

(Philippine Standard Time:)
Ingress = 01:45:52am
Egress = 03:00:05am

Right after the event, they took time to observe Regulus as it moved further away from the moon. Also, they spend some time to observe Comet 17/P Holmes which was already a bit low in the NW horizon. Nevertheless, James was able to still image it through hazy and polluted sky! Below is a comparison image shot of the comet and the Moon to determine how big the comet is right now. The comet is obviously bigger then the diameter of the Moon.

Lastly, they took a group picture beside the equipments they used for the event. The team packed up and left the observatory at around 5:30am.

ALPers took a group shot with the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) as backdrop as well as their telescopes.

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For Comments jkty@astroleaguephils.org