January 5, 2014 ALP Monthly
Meeting Report
by James
Kevin Ty & Christopher Louie Lu
Last January 5 ,
members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines
(ALP) held their monthly meeting at Manila
Planetarium. Members who attended were ALP
President James Kevin Ty ,VP Jett Aguilar, Secretary
Christopher Louie Lu, wife Karren and daughter Frances ;
Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, directors Mike Enage & Rich
Pijuan; Justine Garcia, Edge Lat, Jason Comia,
Peachy Sarmiento, Norman Marigza, Bel Pabunan , Liza Quitlong
and guest German amateur astronomer Andre Hartmann.
Meeting started at
around 3:30pm with ALP guest Andre Hartmann giving a n
ice lecture on his astro journey experience in Namibia ,
Africa. He discuss his 2 months stay there in
Namibia to do astro imaging session under the legendary
dark skies there. He also shows the members his
large haul of deep sky images taken there. He also
discuss how much he spend on logistics that is worth
every penny of it.
Afterwards, ALP Secretary Christopher Louie Lu
proceeded by giving a small part 2 presentation on
some good astro apps available for the Android users.
Comet Monitor is a
software for the purpose of following current position
of comets. It is composed of two database, a star chart,
a data screen, a Sky View screen , and an Ephemerides
table. Comet Monitor comes with two databases, "Selected
JPL" is a selection of popular imaged comets using the
elements from JPL, while "Observable MPC" is the
database of observable comets by the Minor Planet Center
(MPC) without image icons. The development of this
software has been inspired by the approach of comet ISON
which was supposed to become the celestial spectacle
that was estimated to be as bright as the Moon but
unfortunately, fizzled out after its close encounter
with the Sun :(
Exoplanet Guide is
probably the most complete exoplanet data reference for
Android phone users. It is based on the database
published by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR
Arecibo. One of the key features is the graphical
representation of the habitable zone of a parent star.
Exoplanet Guide comes with a fully featured star chart
plotting stars down to magnitude 6.4 plus all Messier
objects.
Lastly, NAW
Chairman Andrew Ian Chan then discussed ALP's
preparations and plans for the Feb 16-22 National
Astronomy Week. Full detailed will be posted in
the days to come after its final planning are prepared.
Meeting ended at
around 5:30pm. Afterwards, some of the ALPers
proceeded to SM Mall of Asia to have dinner there as
well as had their 1st ALP AstroKapihan for the year 2014
at Starbucks SM MOA.
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