April 9-10, 2016 ALP Philippine Messier Marathon 2016 Open Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty, Jett Aguilar, Christopher Louie Lu, Jan Karlo Hernandez, Alejandro Quiling, Mark Ian Singson and Edge Lat

The Astronomical League Of The Philippines, Inc. (ALP) hosted its annual Philippine Messier Marathon Open 2016 as part of its celebration of Global Astronomy Month. This is one of the 4 scheduled GAM activities that ALP intends to participate. More than 70+ participants which includes special participation of ALP, Manila Street Astronomers, Guild for Astronomy Innovation & Advancement, UP AstroSoc & UPLB AstroSoc.  ALP members who attended the event were ALP President James Kevin Ty, VP Jett Aguilar , Secretary Christopher Louie Lu, PRO Edge Lat, directors Shubhashish Banerjee and Peter Benedict Tubalinal ; Manuel Goseco, Jan Karlo Hernandez , Adriel Lim, Ruel Bermudez, Allan Renan Acosta, Alejandro Quilang, Melsejoy Degala , Mark Ian Singson and Nathaniel Custodio.

Messier Marathon participants as well as ALPers started to arrived at Ecosaddle at around 4:00pm and they started to pitched their tents as well as set up their telescopes to prepare for the overnighter event. ALPer James Kevin Ty brought along his Canon EOS1000D (M) DSLR with Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker; Jett Aguilar with his Canon EOS 6D DSLR with Takahashi Epsilon E-180 astrograph mounted on EM-200 mount ; Christopher Louie Lu with his Canon EOS 450D DSLR with EFS 55-250mm on Vixen Polarie mount ; Manu Goseco with his Celestron Edge 8" f/10 SCT on AVX mount as well as a home made 12" f/5 Truss Type Dobsonian reflector ; Nathaniel Custodio with his SBIG STF8300 CCD camera on Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L lens on Vixen GP-DX 2 mount ; Allan Renan Acosta with his Fuji XE1 with Opteka 650-1300mm f/8 lens on sturdy tripod ; Jan Karlo Hernandez with his Nikon D90 DSLR with Celestron C6 Newtonian reflector on CG4 mount ; Peter Benedict Tubalinal with his 12x50 binoculars ; Alejandro Quilang with his Celestron Powerseeker 70AZ refractor and Nikon D5100 DSLR with Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.2 lens on sturdy tripod . Shubhashish Banerjee with his Celestron Powerseeker 70 AZ refractor and 10x50 binoculars.

The sky the whole evening till 4:00am is almost perfectly clear so it was a special gift for all participants to enjoy the beauty of the universe. The Milky Way was awesome the whole evening till dawn! 

As for the Messier Marathon event,  35 participated on the event and the results of their Messier hunting are as follows:

Philippine Messier Marathon site full of cars , tents and telescopes! More than 70+ attended the event.	ALP VP Jett Aguilar beside his Takahashi Epsilon 180 Astrograph on EM-200 mount.
ALP director Shubhashish Banerjee beside Jett's Takahashi Epsilon 180 Astrograph on EM-200 mount.	ALP director Shubhashish Banerjee beside Manu's 12" f/5 Truss Tube Dobsonian reflector.
\ ALP President James Kevin Ty beside Jett's Takahashi Epsilon 180 Astrograph on EM-200 mount.	ALPer Jan Karlo Hernandez beside his Celestron C6N reflector on CG4 mount.
ALP President James Kevin Ty beside his portable Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker.	ALP Secretary Christopher Louie Lu beside his Canon EFS55-250mm zoom lens on Vixen Polarie mount.
ALPers James Kevin Ty, Jett Aguilar and Shubhashish Banerjee.	ALPers and participants having a nice chat after the conclusion of the Messier Marathon event!
NGC5130 Omega Centauri globular star cluster in Centaurus by ALPer James Kevin Ty	NGC5130 Omega Centauri globular star cluster in Centaurus by ALPer Jan Karlo Hernandez
Earthshine by ALPer Mark Ian Singson	M42 Orion Nebula in Orion by ALPer Jan Karlo Hernandez
NGC5130 Omega Centauri globular star cluster in Centaurus by ALPer Christopher Louie Lu	Winter Milky Way by ALPer Mark Ian Singson
Winter Milky Way by ALPer Christopher Louie Lu	M16 Eagle Nebula in Serpens by ALPer James Kevin Ty
Summer Milky Way by ALPer Christopher Louie Lu	Summer Milky Way by ALPer Jan Karlo Hernandez
Summer Milky Way by ALPer Alejandro Quiling	Summer Milky Way by ALPer Alejandro Quiling
Summer Milky Way by ALPer Mark Ian Singson	Summer Milky Way by ALPer Edge Lat

Philippine Messier Marathon 2016 Open Group Shot

Philippine Messier Marathon 2016 Open Wacky Group Shot

ALP Group Shot

ALP Jump Shot