ALP April 4, 2009 100 Hours of Astronomy's Global Star Party Report
by:  James Kevin Ty

Last April 4, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) staged a free public stargazing session at Rajah Sulayman Park in Baywalk, Luneta from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Members who were there to help stage the event were ALP President James Kevin Ty, wife Charito & Kendrick Cole (KC) Ty; Treasurer Henry So, Secretary Rich Pijuan, Auditor Brian Davis, Membership Chair Angie Tan, Director Edgar Ang, ALP / ISAN 100 HA Philippine Coordinator Armando Lee, wife Mia and son Jason Lee, Vincent Lao, Dennis Buenviaje, Andrew Ian Chan & sister Bernice; Aldrin Palacio, Tommy Tan, Lea Visaya, Nathaniel Custodio, Rosalyn Penol, Mark Anthony Honrade, Antoinette Icot, Irving Raymundo, Bel Pabunan & Planetarium staffs Nel Lagda, Roberto Silvestre, Liza Quitlong, Desiree del Rosario & Lalaine Yorobe. Also with them were Astro Camp members Benci Lee, Wilbert Palma, Chris Sabijon, RTU BS Astro Tech student Miguel Artificio and representatives of Sun East Asia Corporation lead by Mr. Yoshikatsu Chikira and Jojo Doliente and members of their staff.

James brought along his TV-101 refractor on GPDX mount as well as ALP's Meade 8" SCT on LX10 mount; Brian with his Celestron C8 SCT on EQ-6 mount; Planetarium staffs with their Celestron C8 SCT on fork mount with Skywatcher 102 refractor on EQ-4 mount; Andrew Ian with his Skywatcher 80ED refractor on EQ-1 mount; Edgar with his Orion XT6 dobsonian reflector; Armando with his Apex 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain on EQ-1 mount & 10" Dobsonian reflector. Sun East Asia's staffs brought along 4 units of Galileo Scopes as well.

All the telescopes were deployed along the stretch of Roxas Boulevard, across the Sulayman Park facing the seawall side.  As the scopes were set up, people started to fall in line to observe the Quarter Moon, beautiful ringed planet Saturn as well the brightest star Sirius. 

It was the first time for this Indian student to observe the Moon through a telescope!  What an experience!	Nel Lagda of Planetarium assisted some students to get their view of the Moon.
The Indian student narrates to the other viewers how the Moon looks like through the telescope.	A student tries afocal imaging at the telescope with his DSLR on the Moon.
KC can't help himself to try to observe the Moon by himself - an heir apparent to follow the footstep of his dad in pursuit of astronomy. :)	"There you are!" is how ALP President James exclaimed when he found his kid observing the Moon by himself. :)
ALPers scattered their telescope setups across the Rajah Sulayman Park.	Hey! Its still too early to have chowtime! :)
Many foreigners also took their time to look through the scopes.	ALPer Andrew Ian Chan and his sister Bernice took some time off to look through their telescope at the Moon.
People lined up to get their chance to view Saturn.	Mr. Chikira of Sun East Asia Corp looked at the Mon through the Meade 8" SCT. "Beautiful !", he said.
Planetarium staffs strike a pose :)	Great crowd that evening!
Peek-A-Boo ! :)	ALPer Edgar Ang's friends are there to support the event. (R-L) ALPer James Kevin Ty, Mariam Coo, ALPer Edgar Ang, Nancy Rostata, Dorothy Yu, Roger & Tommy Tan.  2 kids are Nancy's nieces.
More people arrived at the site as the night progressed.	Everyone had a great time that evening.
ALP Ladies beside Galileo Scopes - (L-R) Rich Pijuan, Angie Tan, Sun East Asia's Jojo Doliente & staff member and Lea Visaya.	Astro Camp's Wilbert Palma (pink shirt) was also there to help out.
Armand's 10" Dobsonian was also a crowd drawer.	It's CHOWTIME after the successful event!

It was almost a dream come true for most of the people as it was their first time to observe the Moon and Saturn through a telescope! The usual Ohhhh and Ahhhs were clearly heard in the background as they peeked at the eyepiece. The magnificent Moon was shown by ALPers through different magnifications that ranged from low power full disk observation to high power close up views of the craters near the terminator!  Saturn was viewed ranging from low power view which included one of its moon Titan to close up views of the ringed planet that looked like a "squid ball on a stick !"

People kept lining up at the telescopes the whole 4 hours and safe estimates on the total people that were able to view through all the scopes can be placed at around 1000+. ALPers continued to let the public view the celestial sights 'till 10:00 p.m. before they called it a night. They had their traditional group shot taken before they packed up and some of them went to Aristocrat Restaurant to have a late dinner while others opted to go home afterwards.