Last October 21, 2023 Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) in partnership with Cutting Edge celebrated International Observe the Moon Night 2023 (InOMN) at the 4th floor Garden Roofdeck of Ayala Trinoma . Members who were present are President James Kevin Ty, director Peter Benedict Tubalinal and Dennis Marquez. Cutting Edge provided 3 telescope to host the event using Celestron Powerseeker 114EQ, Astromaster 114EQ and Powerseeker 60AZ.
Event started with Mam Viyow Ignacio of Cutting Edge introducing members of ALP as well as Peter Benedict Tubalinal as this evening lecturer on What’s up in the Sky as well as Basic Telescope Use.
Initially the weather was not looking good as thick clouds covered the entire sky but luckily at around 7pm, the Moon slowly showed itself to the delight of crowd! They also got souvenir images of the Moon taken using the 3 telescopes. Later in the evening, planet Saturn and Jupiter were also visible.
More than 200 people were able to view the Moon as well as planets Saturn and Jupiter. The event ended at 9pm with traditional group shot.
There will be another Free Telescope Viewing event next Saturday October 28 also at Trinoma Garden roofdeck. See you there!
On the early morning of October 29, 2021, there will be a partial lunar eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines as well as Asia. The Moon will enter the Earth’s light shadow (penumbra) at around 2:02am (PST) when the moon is 54 degrees above the western horizon. Moon then enters into the Earth’s dark shadow (Umbra) at around 03:35am PST with the Moon 33 degrees above western horizon. Maximum eclipse will occur at around 4:14am PST with the Moon 23 degrees above the western horizon, Moon will finally exits the umbral shadow at 4:53am PST with the Moon less than 14 deg above the western horizon. The whole penumbral shadow will not be completely visible as Moonset will end the event locally at 5:53am PST.
Since this eclipse is shallow, the Moon will be bright enough to capture even without a motorized tracking mount. Good luck to all and clear skies! Below is a simulated image of the Moon at maximum eclipse. Image by Eclipse 2.0
The Night Sky Over America’s Beautiful National Parks
By Wally Pacholka (Landscape astrophotographer)
29 October 2023 (Sunday) at 10:00 am Philippine Standard Time
(28 October 2023, Saturday, 10:00 pm EDT)
This October 29, 2023 (Sunday), at 10:00 am, you are all invited to our 2023 ALP Astronomy Experts Speaker series online talk by the noted landscape astrophotographer, Mr. Wally Pacholka.
In this presentation, you will learn from an award-winning astrophotographer how to capture stunning landscape astrophotos that get published using simple equipment and technique.
Mr. Wally Pacholka is a pioneer in the field of landscape astrophotography, and specializes in capturing National Park landscapes across the United States. His astrophotos have been published by NASA 47 times, National Geographic 29 times and TIME-LIFE 18 times, including four times as its Annual Picture of Year.
His work sells in more than 35 U.S. National Park gift shops and online at AstroPics.com. He currently has exhibits at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Natural History Museum in New York City.
Astronomcal League of the Philippines (ALP) in partnership with Cutting Edge will be having 2 FTV events this Oct 21 and 28, 2023 at 4th Floor Trinoma Roofdeck Garden from 5pm to 9pm. The Oct 21 event will also coincide with our yearly International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN).
ALP will also be providing 2 live lectures on the spot on how to use a telescope as well as What’s up in the Sky which we will explain what objects that can be viewed on those dates. Several Celestron telescope models will be on display as well as to be use on the event.
Definitely, the Moon and planet Saturn will be good main targets on those dates. Feel free to being tour friends and relative to view the beauty of the night sky with us! Thanks in advance for the support!
“New Windows to the Sun” Dr. Valentin Martinez Pillet Solar Physicist and Director, U.S. National Solar Observatory Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A. September 17, 2023, Sunday, 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (September 16, 2023 Saturday, 10:00 p.m. EDT)
We are currently at solar maximum (solar cycle 25), or at a period of heightened solar activity, wherein our Sun exhibits a lot of visible sunspots, solar flares, prominences and geomagnetic storms.The Astronomical League of the Philippines is very happy and honored to present an online lecture by Dr. Valentin Martinez Pillet . on the topic – “New Windows to the Sun: The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and Its Companions” this coming September 17, 2023, Sunday, at 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time. Dr Valentin Martinez Pillet is a solar physicist and the current Director of the U.S. National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Boulder, Colorado.
The NSO operates the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on the island of Maui in Hawaii. Prior to Dr. Pillet’s appointment as Director of the National Solar Observatory in 2013, he served as a Senior Scientist at the Instituto de Astrofíscia de Canarias, where he was the Co-Principal Investigator for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission, and the Principal Investigator for the Imaging Magnetograph Experiment that has flown as part of the Sunrise balloon-borne telescope.
Dr. Pillet earned his bachelor’s degree from the Science University of Valencia and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of La Laguna, both in Spain. He was a member of the Science Working Team of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission and was President of Division II of the IAU (“The Sun & the Heliosphere”) from 2010 to 2012.
“Searching for the Oldest Stars and Galaxies in the Universe”
By Hillary Diane Andales
Ph.D. Student in Astronomy & Astrophysics, The University of Chicago
Filipino Science Communicator
On https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRM2qXnMquMAugust 13, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time (August 12, 2023 Saturday, 10:00 p.m. EDT), the Astronomical League of the Philippines would like to invite everyone to an online lecture by Ms. Hillary Diane Andales, a young and brilliant Filipina physicist who will talk on “Searching for the Oldest Stars and Galaxies in the Universe”.
Ms. Hillary Diane Andales studies the oldest stars and galaxies in the cosmos. A native of Abuyog near Tacloban, Leyte, and a graduate of Philippine Science High School – Eastern Visayas Campus, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this year, and she will soon start her Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
While at MIT, she received the Barrett Prize and the Chambliss Medal for her outstanding research on galactic archaeology. Eager to make the physics community more inclusive, she also served as President of the MIT Society of Physics Students. Outside of MIT, she is a dynamic and creative Filipino science communicator whose work has reached more than 8 million viewers worldwide. In 2017, she received $400,000 worth of prizes after winning the international competition, Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
(You can follow her work at https://hillaryandales.com/.)
Abstract:
What was the early universe like? This is the big question that stellar and galactic archaeologists seek to answer. Much like how archaeologists search for fossils to learn about the early Earth, we look for cosmic fossils, such as billions-of-years-old stars and galaxies, to learn about the early universe. Using the clues from these fossils, we can answer even more big questions: How do galaxies form? Where do heavy elements like gold come from? What is the nature of dark matter? The emerging fields of galactic and stellar archaeology might hold some clues!
The Astronomical League of the Philippines is inviting everyone to join us this July 22, 2023 (Saturday) at 8:30 pm Philippine Standard Time (8:30 am EDT, 12:30 UTC) for an online talk on “Vesta and the Chaotic Formation of Planets”by no other than the Pope’s astronomer and the Director of the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Br. Guy J. Consolmagno, S.J.
Abstract:
Ten years ago, NASA’s Dawn mission was sent to asteroid 4 Vesta to inspect, up close, an intact protoplanet from the dawn of the solar system. Except, Vesta’s overall density is too low and its core and crust too big to fit anything like what we expect an intact protoplanet to look like. Instead, Vesta is giving us new clues to planet formation and evolution in a violent early solar system.
Biography:
Br. Guy Consolmagno S.J. is the director of the Vatican Observatory and a planetary scientist studying meteorites and asteroids. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, all in the field of planetary science. He entered the Jesuit order in 1989 and joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory in 1993.
Along with more than 200 scientific publications, he is the author of several popular books on astronomy and the relationship between faith and science. In 2014, he was recognized by the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences with the Carl Sagan Medal for excellence in public communication in planetary sciences. In 2000, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 1983 UA1 as 4597 Consolmagno in his honor.
A talk on falling stars, ” Meteorites in the Vatican”
Please join us this June 24, 2023 (Saturday) at 8:30 pm Philippine Standard Time (8:30 am EDT, 12:30 UTC) for an online talk on meteorites by Br. Robert Macke, S.J. , Curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection.
Biography:
Brother Robert Macke S.J. is a research scientist and curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory. He received a bachelor of physics from MIT in 1996, then studied at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to receive a Master of Arts in physics in 1999. He taught astronomy for two years at Bowling Green State University in Ohio before entering the Jesuit order in 2001. As a Jesuit brother, he received a Master of Arts in philosophy from St. Louis University in 2006, and after a year teaching astronomy at Rockhurst University began work toward a Ph.D. in physics (planetary science specialty) at the University of Central Florida, which he completed in 2010. From 2011-2013, he studied for a Master of Theological Studies at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, and then joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory in 2013. He became the curator of the Vatican Meteorite Collection in 2013. To date, he has been involved in numerous research collaborations, including membership in the science teams of the Lucy and the OSIRIS-REx space probes, and has applied his research techniques to a large number of moon rocks from the Apollo missions. Outside of research, he makes YouTube videos both for the Vatican Observatory and for his own channel, “Macke MakerSpace.”
Abstract:
The Vatican Observatory is a research institution with a long and proud tradition in the astronomical sciences. The work of the observatory, done by Jesuit scientists, serves as a sign to the world of the compatibility of faith and science as well as the Catholic Church’s support of science. In addition to traditional astronomy, the Jesuits of the observatory also study theoretical physics, planetary science, and laboratory work with meteorites. The Vatican collection of over 1,200 meteorite specimens is housed at the Vatican Observatory. Research with the meteorites focuses primarily on physical properties: density, porosity, magnetic susceptibility, and thermal properties. These measurements are not limited to the Vatican collection; through international collaborations, we also study other collections. I will also speak a little bit about the application of my work to the OSIRIS-REx space mission and the specimens from the asteroid Bennu that it is delivering to the Earth.
“A Glimpse of Galaxies at the Dawn of the Universe”
by Debra M. Elmegreen, Ph.D. (President, International Astronomical Union)
May 20, 2023 (Saturday), 8:30 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (8:30 a.m. EDT)
Our home planet Earth resides in a spiral galaxy which is the Milky Way. Have you ever wondered what galaxies are, their structure, and how they are formed in the Universe? Please join us this May 20, 2023 (Saturday) at 8:30 p.m. Philippine Standard Time (8:30 a.m. EDT) for an online talk on ““A Glimpse of Galaxies at the Dawn of the Universe”, by no other than Dr. Debra M. Elmegreen, the current President of the. International Astronomical Union. Dr. Elmegreen’s talk will explore the composition and structure of galaxies across cosmic time, probing the evolution of galaxies as they grow and interact with one another.
Dr. Debra M. Elmegreen was the Professor of Astronomy on the Maria Mitchell Chair at Vassar College from 1994 to 2022, after joining the faculty in 1985. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (the first female to major in astrophysics) and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University and was a Carnegie Observatories Postdoctoral Fellow (the firs Her research focuses on the structure and evolution of galaxies at optical, infrared and radio wavelengths. She enjoys observing with the Hubble Space Telescope and now, with the James Webb Space Telescope. Dr. Elmegreen is President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) — the first U.S. female to hold this position in its 103-year history — and Past President of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
Below are images taken by members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines. Therefore, all images are the property of ALP as well as the imager mentioned. Any intention to use the images should seek permission to the ALP as well as the main author of the image.
Jett Aguilar
Images taken using Canon EOS R8 mirrorless camera with Canon EF1.8X extender on Takahashi TSA102 Refractor. 1/250sec exposure at ISO 100.
Peter Benedict Tubalinal
Image taken using Vivo V27e Smartphone afocal on Celestron Nexstar 8i SCT with Celestron ELux 25mm Plossl.
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