December 30-31, 2015 ALP Stargazing Session Report

December 30-31, 2015 ALP Stargazing Session Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty , Andrew Ian Chan and Joaquin Fajardo

Last December 30, ALPers consisting of ALP President James Kevin Ty, Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, Joaquin Fajardo and Robert Gascon went to Tanay, Rizal to do a site inspection as well as stage a stargazing session to check the site's darkness. They meet up at around 2:30pm and proceeded to the site. Along the way, they also got to see a beautiful double rainbow! The sky was a bit cloudy when they arrive but as later in the evening, the sky partly cleared up for them to do some deep sky imaging session. James brought along his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker ; Andrew with his Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount ; Alex, on the other hand brought along his Canon 75-300mm lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker. In the early evening , James imaged the Horsehead Nebula and M41 galactic star cluster and Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina in the early morning before sunrise.

Andrew, on the other hand, image M42 Orion Nebula, M45 Pleiades galactic star cluster, Waning Gibbous Moon and Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina. Joaquin imaged Orion wide shot as well as waning gibbous Moon and Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina.

The Waning Gibbous Moon that rose in the late evening hamper a bit imaging quality specially on the comet as the gas and dust tails are now faintly seen compared to last December 13th comet session. Despite the several abrupt short drizzle sessions they encountered, they are still quite happy that they were able to some deep sky imaging session despite the Moon's presence. In the morning, they had a traditional group picture taken by going home.

ALPer Joaquin Fajardo beside his Canon EOS 1100D DSLR with Canon EF75-300mm F/5.6 lens on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker.	ALPer James Kevin Ty beside his Canon EOS 1000D (M) DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens on Kenko Sky Memo-R Star Tracker.
ALPer Andrew Ian Chan beside his Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount.	ALPers had a hearty stomach filling Bulalo meal at Mang Vic's Bulalo House before going home.
Double Rainbow by ALPer James Kevin Ty	NGC2024 Flame / B33 Horsehead Nebula by ALPer James Kevin Ty
M41 Galactic Star Cluster by ALPer James Kevin Ty	Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina by ALPer James Kevin Ty
Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina by ALPer Joaquin Fajardo	Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina (Invert Image) by ALPer Joaquin Fajardo
M42 Orion Nebula in Orion by ALPer Andrew Ian Chan	M45 Pleaides Galactic Star Cluster by ALPer Andrew Ian Chan
Waning Gibbous Moon by ALPer Andrew Ian Chan	Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina by ALPer Andrew Ian Chan