ALP February 28, 2009 USC-TC IYA NAW 2009 Report
by Jeffrey Canton

Last February 28, 2009, the University of San Carlos - Talamban Campus (USC-TC) held a stargazing activity, in line with their Physics Olympics, and was participated by several schools. (Unfortunately, Jeffrey was not able to get the list of all the participating schools.)  ALPer Jeffrey arrived on the site as early as around 5 pm. ALPer Christopher Go's lecture was supposed to be conducted during the same time but was postponed to around 9pmm, so Jeffrey and his friends decided to start setting up the telescopes he brought (Celestron Astromaster 130EQ and CStar Stratus 60mm refractor). They also set up their tent since it was an overnight event and they might need a place to lie down, which unfortunately they were not able to use :-)

Aside from the 2 telescopes brought  by Jeffrey, there was Chris' C8 SCT on Losamandy GM8 mount. Other telescopes were also brought by participants, such as a lady who brought her small refractor. And around 8pm, another 4-inch reflector was brought along by his friend's parents. Actually, Chris was not expecting Jeffrey & Co. so he was very glad to see them helping out in the stargazing event.

ALPer Christopher Go setting up his Celestron C8 at the school grounds.	ALPer Jeffrey Canton and his friends were also there to help assist the stargazing session.
Students lined up to get a good view of planet Saturn.	Nice view of M42 Orion Nebula!
Whoa!  Saturn rocks!	Japanese Planetary Imager, Tomio Akutsu, took time off to help his friend, Chris, in conducting the stargazing session that evening.

There were so many students. Almost half of the entire soccer field was lined with tents and all of them very eager to view thru the telescopes. They started to observe the Moon and Venus early that evening. Then around 8:30pm, they shifted the telescope to Saturn, and let the students view its rings. One could really see the amazement in the faces of the students as they gazed at Saturn. Students and enthusiasts were curious on how the group was able to identify Saturn among all other stars in the skies. Jeffrey and friends had to get their laptops and show them the different astronomy software programs they have. hehehe! They had a good discussion with students about astronomy, and Jeff was kind enough to just let them handle his CStar Stratus telescope so they will have a firsthand experience on how to operate a telescope.

ALPer Chris Go gave his lecture about astronomy around 9pm. They then focused their scopes to M42 and let the students view the majestic Orion Nebula. At around 10:30pm, Chris packed up along with his telescope, but ALPer Jeffrey and his friends have decided to stay on site the whole night and re-focused their telescopes back to Saturn since the students and several teachers were requesting for it. Jeffrey guessed they just want to see the rings of Saturn once more. Besides, it's not an everyday experience to actually see Saturn's rings so they're really curious about it. At around 4am, they decided to pack up and call it a night. Everybody had their satisfaction of the skies. :-)

Aside from ALPer Jeffrey, his friends, James, Rodion Herrera, MJ Dianne Camillon and Sherwin Sia, are all backyard astronomers from Cebu. Chris's Japanese friend, Tomio Akutsu, was also there to assist him during the entire event.

For more images of the event, click here.

For Comments jkty@astroleaguephils.org