March 28, 2015 ALP and Exploreum Earth Hour Observation Report

March 28, 2015 ALP / Exploreum Earth Hour Stargazing Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty and Jett Aguilar

Last March 28, ALP and Exploreum join hands to celebrate Earth Hour Stargazing Session at SM By The Bay (SMBY) at SM Mall of Asia , Pasay City. Members who attended were ALP President James Kevin Ty, and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty; VP Jett Aguilar , Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, Secretary Christopher Louie Lu, PRO Edge Lat, directors Peter Benedict Tubalinal , Arnel Campos, Ronald Sison and Rich Pijuan ; Shubhashish Banerjee, Norman Marigza, Adriel Lim, Justine Garcia, Per Edman, Miguel Cajita, Mark Ian Singson, and Michael John Cunanan.

ALPers and Exploreum staffs started to setup their telescopes at SMBY as early as 4:00 pm. ALPers held setup Exploreum 4 big telescopes for the event. They are the Celestron CPC8 8" f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) , CPC11 11" f/10 SCT, C14 14" f/10 SCT on CGE-Pro equatorial mount and Skywatcher 10" f/5 Newtonian reflector on HEQ6 mount.

Earth Hour 2015 touches on Climate Change as well as showing to the public how much we are wasting electricity and adding light pollution. Here at SMBY, lights were put off from 8:30-9:30pm and they use this opportunity to show how much light pollution can destroy the beauty of the universe. During the lights off period, deep sky objects such as Orion Nebula and Pleaides were clearly seen compared to when the lights were powered back after the end of the 1 hour shutdown. Also shown to the public that evening were gas giant Jupiter and its Jovian Moons and a Waxing Gibbous Moon.

The event gets started at around 7:30pm after watching the great fireworks show. Afterwards, more than 1000+ people queued up on the 4 big telescopes from 7:30pm -10:30pm! It was a very successful event . ALPers then take their traditional group shot before calling it a night! See you all again on April 12 Global Astronomy Month (GAM) SUNDay free solar observation session at SMBY from 4:00pm-6:00pm.

New ALP member Michael Cunanan with his GF , Andrew Ian Chan and Ruch Pijuan.	(L-R) Trix Cajita, Miguel Cajita, Per Edman, Mark Ian Singson and Peter Benedict Tubalinal.
\More than 1000+ people got to view throught the telescopes from 7:30-10:30pm!	ALPer Arnel Campos here explaining to the crowd on Jupiter.
All 4 telescopes has endless people queueing to view the Moon and Jupiter!	\ ALPer Arnel Campos here helping a small kid to view the Moon.
Wow! Jupiter rocks !!!	Exploreum's Mam Alelie Cruz, Peter Benedict Tubalinal, Exploreum's Isabella Manjon, James Kevin Ty and Ronald Sison.
Some people ask ALP President James Kevin Ty for a group shot as souvenir shot with an astronomer :)	ALPer Per Edman handling the C14 SCT!
ALPer Edge Lat beside the C14 SCT	ALPers Norman Marigza, Justine Garcia and Edge Lat.
ALPers Ronald Sison, Peter Benedict Tubalinal, Norman Marigza, Justine Garcia and Shubhashish Banerjee beside the CPC 8 SCT.	ALPers James Kevin Ty, Andrew Ian Chan, Jett Aguilar and Shubhashish Banerjee with Exploreum's Mam Alelie Cruz and family :)
ALPers candid shot with Norman Marigza, Arnel Campos, Rich Pijuan, Justne Garcia and Edge Lat.	ALPer Edge Lat here helping a kid get a view of Orion Nebula through the C14 SCT!
ALPers Edge Lat, Norman Marigza, Rich Pijuan, Per Edman, Chrisopher Louie Lu and Shubhashish Banerjee.	ALPers Andrew Ian Chan, Ronald Sison, Christopher Louie Lu, Jett Aguilar, Edge Lat and Norman Marigza ganging up on the 10" Skywatcher Newtonian reflector!
Earth Hour Lights Off Period facing West	Earth Hour Lights On Period facing West
Earth Hour Lights Off Period facing East	Earth Hour Lights On Period facing East