September 9, 2012 ALP 9th Anniversary Meeting Report
by James Kevin Ty & Christopher Louie Lu

Last September 9, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) celebrated  their 9th anniversary meeting at Manila Planetarium.  Members who attended were ALP President James Kevin Ty , Charito and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty ,  VP Jett Aguilar , Secretary  Christopher Louie Lu , wife Karren and daughter Frances;  PRO Armando Lee, wife Mia and son Jason Lee; directors Peter Benedict Tubalinal , wife Joy and daughter Stephanie ; Rich Pijuan ;  Liza Quitlong, Ma. Belen Pabunan , Nel Lagda , Gary Andreassen , wife Irma and son Steinar Andreassen , Arnel Campos and wife Michelle Campos; Miguel Enrique Cajita and dad Trix ; Iah Serna , Norman Marigza ,  Mike Enage and Jeremias Soriano with children Jessica Joy  and Elijah Jeremie Soriano.

ALPers took time to bring a lot of pot luck foods to share with fellow ALPers. Meeting proper started at around 1:15pm with  ALP director Peter Benedict Tubalinal leading a prayer to thank God for all the blessings and success ALP have garnered for the past 9 years. Afterwards, ALPers helped themselves on the bountiful and delicious foods that members brought along for the pot luck lunch.  Members also use the opportunity to discuss and chat with fellow members on what's the latest news in astronomy and space .

Delicious Potluck Food brought along by ALPers to share with fellow members :) Yummy !	ALP Astro Kids!
ALP director Peter Benedict Tubalinal leads the opening prayer before the start of the pot luck lunch.	ALP director Peter Benedict Tubalinal thank God for all the blessing and success that ALP garnered for the past 9 years! Amen!
It's Chow Time !!!	Astro Kids does the Eat and Play mode :) LOL
ALP Gentlemen discuss future plans and activities of ALP :)	ALP Lovely Ladies :)

After lunch, ALPers went inside the Planetarium dome to watch a documentary movie  entitled “Mission to Mars”, produced by BBC Horizon.   Last August 06, 2012, NASA & JPL's most ambitious rover landed in Gale Crater on the Martian surface. Called Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), this latest rover is equipped with the latest and most advance science equipment to probe, analyze and communicate its finding back to here on Earth. This documentary also features the people involved in MSL's robotics, mechanics, on-board computers and experiments not to mention the power-supply that the Mars rover “Curiosity” will use during its mission on Mars. The most amazing feature of the documentary is how they plan to land the Mars Rover on the red planet using the largest heat-shield ever made, then the strongest supersonic parachute and finally the 'Sky-crane' to allow MSL to soft land on the Martian surface. We are now awaiting discoveries to be made by “Curiosity”.

After the show, through the kindness of Manila Planetarium Curator Bel Pabunan, the planetary show "The Starry Night" was shown to ALPers.  It was a great way to reminiscent how beautiful our night sky is and also serves as an imaginary feeling that they were observing and imaging under the dark skies during the rainy season :)

Lastly, ALP President James Kevin Ty and PRO Armando Lee discussed the upcoming September 22nd InOMN and Starpeace 2012 which will be held at Rajah Sulayman Park as well as October 13th Caliraya Stargazing Session!

The meeting ended at around 5:30pm.  Once again, Happy 9th Anniversary to ALP !!!

ALP Group Shot

See you all again in our next year's Grand 10th Year Anniversary !!!