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ALP NATIONAL ASTRONOMY WEEK STARGAZING REPORT
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty and Alexander Loinaz
Last February 24, the Astronomical League
of the Philippines concluded their National Astronomy Week celebration at Baywalk,
Luneta. Members who were present that day were James Kevin Ty, Allen Yu, Joseph
Torres, Alexander Loinaz, Rafael Lunar, Rich Pijuan , Henry So, Dennis Llante,
Melchor Pilones , Bel Pabunan and Planetarium staff members consisting of Nel Lagda, Maxi
Zabanal, Robert Silvestre, Liza Quitlong, and Meann Ramirez. The event started at around 6:00pm with ALP Treasurer Allen Yu and the planetarium staff lead by Melchor Pilones and Bel Pabunan setting up first at the Baywalk area where ALP had their stargazing session last Sunday February 18th. ALP president James Kevin Ty arrived later at around 6:30pm to set up another telescope for the stargazing session to conclude this year's NAW event. Allen brought his Skywatcher 6"f/5 reflector on EQ-4 mount; Planetarium brought their ever reliable Celestron C8 on fork mount while James brought along a new 8" f/4 generic Newtonian reflector on his Vixen GP-D mount. The 8" f/4 reflector was sent to James for product testing and evaluation so he use that opportunity to test its optics visually during that time. Although ALP has 3 more scopes on hand at that time, they decided not to set it up since the sky was cloudy. There were 3 schools that were there to observe with the ALP as well as people in the Baywalk area who wont miss their opportunity to observe first hand the Quarter phase Moon as well as the planets Venus and Saturn. The three said schools were as follows: Pamantasang Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) , Universidad de Manila (UDM), and Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (ERIST). Although the sky was mostly cloudy during the 6:00-9:30pm session, there were still more than 1,000 people who got their chance to observe the three objects. At around 9:30pm, the group packed up their scopes and called it a night and had a group picture taken before they leave Baywalk with a happy feeling that they were able to share the night sky with the public with their modest equipment.
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