We are deeply saddened about the passing of the first curator of the National Planetarium, and a member of ALP, Mr. Maximo P. Sacro Jr.
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May 26, 2021 Total Lunar Eclipse
On the early evening of May 26, 2021, there will be a total lunar eclipse that will be visible in the Philippines as well as Asia. The Moon will rise at around with more or less 50% umbral partial phase started midway already at 06:18pm PST (Philippine Standard Time) so it is best to find an observing site with a clear eastern horizon. This eclipse will pass near the Northern path of the Earth’s shadow thus totality for this eclipse will be quite short at around 15 minutes only ! Moon will enter Totality at around 07:11pm PST with maximum totality phase occurring at 7:19pm PST with the Moon at around 11 deg high in the SE horizon near the constellation of Scorpius so the bright star Antares will be around 5 degrees below the eclipsed Moon. Totality will end at around 07:26pm PST. Afterwards, the Moon will gradually start to exit the umbral shadow until it exits umbral phase at around 08:53pm PST. The Moon will totally exits the penumbral phase at 09:50pm PST signifying the end of the eclipse event.
Full Eclipse circumstances are as follows:
Moon enters Penumbra :
Moon enters Umbra :
Moonrise : 06:18:12pm // 00 deg Alt // 112 deg Az
Moon enters Totality : 07:11:28pm // 11deg Alt // 116 deg Az
Maximum Eclipse : 07:18:42pm // 13 deg Alt // 116 deg Az
Moon exits Totality : 07:25:56pm // 14 deg Alt // 117 deg Az
Moon exits Umbra: 08:52:25pm // 31 deg Alt // 127 deg Az
Moon exits Penumbra: 09:49:47pm // 41 deg Alt // 138 deg Az
The Moon is expected to still be bright during totality so this is also favorable for imagers who doesn’t have a motorized tracking mount. Good luck to all and clear skies!
November 30, 2020 Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
This coming November 30, there will be a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse that will be visible here in the Philippines as well as most of the Asian region. This will be the last lunar eclipse for the year 2020.
July 12, 2020 ALP Zoom Monthly Meeting
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
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 Photo Gallery
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.
June 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse Report
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 21, 2020 Partial Solar Eclipse
This coming June 21st, there will be a partial solar eclipse that will be visible in the entire Philippines as well as some of our neighboring Asian and Middle East countries.
June 7, 2020 ALP Zoom Meeting
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
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
