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July 12, 2020 ALP Zoom Monthly Meeting

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Last July 12th, Members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines hold a zoom online monthly meeting at 1:30pm. Members who attended were ALP President James Kevin Ty, directors Peter Benedict Tubalinal and Ronald Sison; Val Thomas Abapo, Mark Ian Singson, Dexter Cruz and Joyce Gonsalves. 

Meeting started at around 1:45pm with normal cordial chats on current events happening as well as discuss astro topic on Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE which has brightness outburst this week between magnitude 0 to 1.5 and was visible on the esrly morning time before sunrise. The comet will now sink further below the horizon and will become an early evening object ager sunset with an estimated magnitude between magnitude 3 to 4 till end of July 2020.

Afterwards, a discussion on astro equipment pursued with ALPers hoping fellow ALPer Val Thomas Abapo buy or fabricated a rail system for his Celestron Evolution 8 SCT scope. The meeting was fun filled as well as all attendees brought out their big guns for a beautiful group shot before ending the meeting at around 4:30pm.

 

Finder Chart for Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE

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Here is a finder chart for Manila, Philippines use to locate Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE after Sunset. This can be use more or less for Philippines use with a few degrees higher or lower from this illustration depending on your location courtesy of Mobile Observatory. Comet animation courtesy of Vixen Comet Book. Good luck and happy hunting after Sunset!

Please disregard the estimated magnitude on the chart as the comet last week’s brightness outburst to around mag 0-1.5 make the estimates obsolete. Thanks.

 

 

June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse Report

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June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse

ALPers were initially planning to travel to Chiayi, Taiwan to document the June 21, 2020 Annular Solar Eclipse but unfortunately, due to Covid19 pandemic situation, international travel is very restricted due to very strict quarantine procedures so it was cancelled 🙁
So ALP President James Kevin Ty together with my son KC setup at their roofdeck in Manila, Philippines to document the partial solar eclipse which starts at 3:01pm PST with maximum eclipse of 68% at 4:22PM PST and ends at 5:31PM PST.
James set up his Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on TV-101 refractor on Vixen GPDX mount while his son used a Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain on Nexstar SLT Mount. Eclipse started partly cloudy at around 3:00pm but they were able to play hide and seek with the clouds till 4:10pm PST before they got clouded out and made a final tease for them to make their final image of the eclipse at 4:43pm PST, after more than 20 minutes past maximum eclipse at 4:22pm PST. After that, the clouds shut them down totally till 5:32pm before they end the session and packup. They were also able to see a iridescence colorful cloud formation while they were clouded out at maximum eclipse as a consolation.
From other ALP observing sites, a few of them were able to capture a few minutes before or after maximum partial phase at 4:22pm PST such as a photo from ALP VP Jett Aguilar few minutes past maximum but most of them also experience partly heavy clouds as well.
The rest of the country also experience partly cloudy skies on the entire eclipse duration.

June 7, 2020 ALP Zoom Meeting

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Last June 7, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP), held their online zoom monthly meeting. Members who participated were ALP President James Kevin Ty and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty, director Ronald Sison, members Alberto Lao, Val Abapo, Mark Ian Singson and Joyce Gonzalves.

Meeting started at around 1:30pm with members discussing on the just concluded June 6, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. The Penumbral being only 57% was very subtle and hard to notice compared to the last January 11, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse which covers a Penumbral Phase of around 90%.

ALP President James Kevin Ty then discussed on the June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines. An ALP Eclipse Expedition Team would have went to Chiayi, Taiwan for this event but had to be cancelled due to the Covid 19 travel restrictions. Hopefully, ALP will send another eclipse expedition in 2023.

The meeting ended at around 3:30pm.

June 6, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse Report

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Last June 6th, ALP President James Kevin Ty went up to his  roof deck at around 1:00am to observe and document the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse that was visible in our country.  He setup his Canon EOS M6 mirrorless camera on Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set at 400mm f/11 and mounted on Vixen GP-DX mount. First contact occurred at around 01:45am and reaching maximum penumbral phase of 57% at around 03:25am. The southern limb of the Moon near the Tycho crater shows a lightly shaded area. He continued to image the eclipse till around 04:45am before clouds covered up the Moon which by that time is less than 5 deg above the western horizon. He packed up at around 5:00am.

Other ALPers who were able to image the Penumbral Lunar eclipse as well

Peter Benedict Tubalinal

Mark Ian Singson

 

May 31, 2020 ALP 1st Zoom Monthly Meeting

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Last May 31, some members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP), participated in their 1st Zoom meeting since its inception. Members who participated were ALP President James Kevin Ty and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty, VP Jett Aguilar, Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan and wife Secretary Justine Guillerma Garcia Chan, director Peter Benedict Tubalinal, members Mark Ian Singson, Alberto Lao, Vincent Gella, Rodel Inclan, and Joaquin Fajardo.

This was the first meeting since February that was held after the whole country was placed under quarantine due to the Covid 19 pandemic last March 16.

It was a special meeting as some inactive or busy members got a chance to join and it was made very informal so as to make the ambience light and easy.  Meeting started at around 1:30pm with ALP President James discussing on data and informations of the 2 upcoming astro events being the June 6, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse as well as June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse that are both visible in the Philippines.

VP Jett Aguilar, on the other hand discussed some safety precaution on how to protect oneself from getting infected by this virus.

The meeting ended at around 4pm. VP Jett Aguilar also mentioned that online monthly meeting will probably be made till the end of the year or perhaps till next year until a vaccine for Covid 19 virus will be made available to the public.

ALP Suspends Monthly Meeting and Stargazing Session Amid Covid-19 Spread

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In light of the Enhanced Community Quarantine being implemented by the Philippine Government in the entire Luzon region including Metro Manila to curb the fast spreading of the Covid-19 virus infection, Astronomical League of the Philippines Inc (ALP) will tentatively suspend all upcoming monthly meetings and stargazing sessions until this crisis and quarantine implementation is lifted by the government.  Stay Safe and please help support by staying indoors as much as possible. Thank you.

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