ALP December 26, 2019 Annular Solar Eclipse at Singapore Report

by James Kevin Ty , ALP 2019 ASE Expedition Team Leader

Last December 26, 2019 , members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) send a contingent of 14 members and their families to observe the Annular Solar Eclipse in Singapore. Members who participated on the documentation of the eclipse were ALP President and Expedition Leader James Kevin Ty and wife Charito and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty , VP Jett Aguilar, Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan , Secretary Justine Garcia , director Ronald Sison. Also on the team were Jett’s wife Angge, son Jan and daughter Justine ; Ronald’s wife Adrielle, sons Adrian and Ray Sison. Originally, ALPer Felipe Uygongco as supposed to be joining the team but had to beg off a few days before the event as not feeling well to fly the trip.

James brought along Canon EOS 5DsR DSLR with Canon EF 400mm f / 2.8 II L lens with EF 2x II Extender as well as Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Orion 50mm guidescope with Televue 2.5x Powermate for video recording and both mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker ; Jett brought along his trusty Canon EOS 6D DSLR on Borg 77ED refractor with EF 2x Extender mounted on Kenko Sky Memo NS star tracker as well as a Takahashi 60 refractor mounted on Celestron Astro Fi mount ; Andrew with his EOS R mirrorless camera with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with EF 1.4x III Extender on Vixen Polarie star tracker ; Ronald with his Nikon D5300 DSLR on Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain on Sky Adventurer star tracker ; Kendrick with Canon EOS R mirrorless camera on Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with EF 1.4x II Extender on Celestron Nexstar mount.

The team went to PAssion WaVe Jurong Lake Gardens to join The Astronomical Society of Singapore (TASOS) led by President Albert Ho and Eclipse Committee Head Albert Lim and their members. They arrived at the around 8:30am SST (Singapore Standard Time) . The sky was clear that morning and the team stated to setup their equipment comes 9:00am. TASOS Eclipse committee head Albert Lim one in a while check up on us to see everything ok as well as good friend Tan Wei Leong.

First contact stated at around 11:26am and James notified the group that the first notch is already visible entering at around 2 o’clock position. James also instructed ALP Secretary to monitor the temperature and humidity on designated times for the event using a digital thermometer / hygrometer.

Some light clouds passed in front of the Sun around 12:15pm but didn’t interfere that much as they are thin. Just before 2nd contact at around 1:22pm, numerous Baily’s Beads are visible already as well as the red chromosphere as the Moon slides through thinly along the edge. Our location is very near the Northern Limit thus our the Chromosphere and the Baily’s Beads durations were a bit longer than near the centerline. Maximum annularity occurred at around 1:23pm and afterwards, Chromosphere and Baily’s Beads appeared once again thus ending the annularity event to more or less around 1 min 40 seconds at our site.

Estimations of more than thousand people were present on the observation roof deck with more people lining up at the TASOS side of the roof deck as they setup a huge live projection screen as well as numerous viewing scopes aside from their imaging setups. ALP President and Expedition team leader James Kevin Ty was also interviewed by local Singapore TV channel 8 regarding the eclipse and why the ALP team had to fly over to Singapore for the event.

At around 3:24pm, the eclipse ends and the group posed for their traditional group shot to celebrate for the success of the expedition to document the eclipse. Afterwards, they packed up and return to their hotel and later in the evening joined the TASOS in celebrating the post eclipse with a delicious dinner meeting at 8:00pm at Faber Drive Bar.

On behalf of the org, we are extending our heartfelt thanks to TASOS led by President Albert Ho, Eclipse Committee Head Albert Lim, Tan Wei Leong for making sure our setup site are in good hands. Hats off also to the People’s Association and PAssion WaVe Jurong Lake Gardens for allowing us to setup in your facility. Last but not the least , to our ever supportive Canon Marketing Philippines, who loaned our team the needed imaging cameras and lenses to make sure the eclipse is documented in the best possible scenario!