National Astronomy Week 2025 Opening Ceremony!

For the first time in history, DOST-PAGASA, the Philippine Astronomical Society, Inc. and the Astronomical League Of The Philippines, Inc. are joining forces to officially open the National Astronomy Week (NAW) 2025 celebration!

📅 Date: February 16, 2025
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
📍 Live via Zoom: bit.ly/NAW2025Opening

This year’s theme, “Stellar Encounters – Astronomy in Daily Life”, explores how astronomy influences music, arts, film, climate change, and mental health.

Speakers:
🎤 Dr. Renato Solidum Jr. – DOST Philippines Secretary
📸 Christopher Go – World-Renowned Planetary Imager
🌠 Edwin Aguirre & Imelda Joson – Philippine Astronomy Pioneers

Join us as we celebrate the wonders of the universe and how they shape our everyday lives! Stay tuned for exciting activities throughout the week, hosted by various astronomy organizations nationwide.

Follow us for updates!

NAW2025 #StellarEncounters #AstronomyInDailyLife

To start off our Astronomy Experts Speaker Series for 2025, the Astronomical League of the Philippines would like to invite you to two online talks this Sunday, January 19, 2025 at 9:30 am Philippine standard Time (1:30 UTC, or January 18 Saturday, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern standard Time)

The first talk will be by Mr. Tariq Malik, the Editor in Chief of Space.com, on “The Rise of the Giant Rockets — Starship, New Glenn, Vulcan and SLS”.

Abstract: The year 2025 will mark a giant leap forward in the realm of giant rockets, with SpaceX’s massive Starship poised for a dozen flights while Blue Origin’s own New Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan are also set to soar. We’ll learn all about these new powerful rockets, what they could mean for spaceflight and why NASA’s own giant rocket, the Space Launch System, is skipping 2025 in order to launch in 2026.

The second talk will be by the co-discoverer of Comet Hale-Bopp, a.k.a. The Great Comet of 1997, none other than Mr. Alan Hale, who will speak on “On Comets . . . and Other Things”.

Abstract: Alan Hale’s presentation will describe his personal journey as an astronomer, from his earliest beginnings through his years working with NASA’s Deep Space Network and his research in graduate school, the discovery and appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp, and the various astronomical, educational, and other activities he has engaged in since Hale-Bopp’s departure. His current efforts focus heavily on his collaboration with the Las Cumbres Observatory’s Global Sky Partners educational forum in New Mexico. Alan will also “share some speculation on what [he] might do in the future.”

The Astronomical league of the Philippines would like to invite you to a free online talk on “The Importance of Preserving Astronomical History” by John W. Briggs, Astronomy historian and past president, Antique Telescope Society

This will be held on December 15, 2024, Sunday at 9:30 am Philippine Standard Time/1:30 UT, December 14, 2024, Saturday at 8:30 pm EST

Abstract: Everyone interested in astronomy faces a unique challenge on how to connect with it. For some enthusiasts, the subject becomes a life-long interest with never-ending opportunities for learning, engagement, and fulfilling observation. Our fundamental understanding of the Universe remains in an exciting flux, sometimes progressing in unexpected leaps! The progress of science and technology is thus a fascinating human process with an associated sociology that ranges back through centuries.

This presentation will dramatize how the history of astronomy is a specialty that can, and should be, embraced by enthusiasts. Perhaps surprisingly, there are many grassroots opportunities for active engagement in the history of astronomy, given ongoing challenges in historical preservation. Artifacts from this history range from individual instruments to whole observatories, from publications to whole libraries, and from recollections to recorded “oral history.” Artifacts like these — some of quite grand scale — are unfortunately being shut down, discarded, lost, or so awkwardly modified in their modernization, that intangible, but often very precious, aspects are being lost. This is especially unfortunate given the potential of historical artifacts to be inspirational educational tools, at least in the hands of people who understand how to use them. With this lavishly illustrated presentation, John Briggs hopes to engage more astronomers in the fascinating history of the field.

John W. Briggs serves as Secretary of the new Alliance of Historical Observatories that has met at Mount Wilson, Palomar, Lowell and Yerkes observatories, and most recently, at the Vatican Observatory near Rome.

John served three terms as President of the Antique Telescope Society, and in 2018 he received the Society’s Newton Medal for his contributions to the organization. In 2005-2006 he served as a visiting scientist at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. His principal activity now involves the Astronomical Lyceum, a facility devoted to historical astronomy and its preservation, and a related project to create the Mountain View Observatory Association in New Mexico. 

“Bright Galaxies, Dark Skies”

By James D. Lowenthal Professor of Astronomy
Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts
November 24 (Sunday) at 9:30 am Philippine Standard Time/November (Saturday) at 8:30 pm EST

How did galaxies like our own Milky Way Galaxy — home to the Sun and over 100 billion other stars — form soon after the Big Bang? How did they evolve over billions of years into the galaxies we see near us today? One way to address those questions is to look far back in time to see galaxies forming directly. Some of the most spectacular and interesting such distant galaxies are dusty, star-forming galaxies, some of which are forming stars more than 1,000 times faster than the Milky Way currently does.How do they do it? Where does the gas come from? Are they actually two giant galaxies colliding? What can they tell us about the formation of galaxies in general?Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Large Millimeter Telescope, and other major telescopes on the ground and in space, an international team of researchers called PASSAGES is taking a deep dive into these early cauldrons of star formation.Dr. James Lowenthal is a Professor of Astronomy at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.His research interests include high-redshift galaxies, Lyman-break galaxies, starburst galaxies, millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength galaxies, galaxy formation and evolution, QSO absorption line systems, QSO host galaxies and ultra-faint radio sources. He has used some of the largest telescopes in the world, such as Keck, Hubble, Spitzer and the Large Millimeter Telescope in Sierra Negra, Mexico.

“2024 RW1 and the Importance of Small Asteroid Impacts”
By Dr. Peter Jenniskens (meteor astronomer, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center)
September 29 (Sunday) at 9:30 am Philippine Standard Time/September 28 (Saturday) at 9:30 pm EDT

Just after midnight on September 5, 2024, a small asteroid called 2024 RW1 impacted Earth’s atmosphere and created a very bright meteor (fireball) seen by many in Northeastern Luzon, Philippines. The green fireball created a veil of orange fragments, some of which may have survived and now rest on the bottom of the Pacific ocean as meteorites. This impact was special because it was announced by astronomers who had seen the asteroid approach Earth on a collision trajectory. Because the asteroid impact was announced, it was recorded in many spectacular videos. This was only the ninth time this had happened. In four of those cases, the impact was over land. In each case, astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens teamed up with local researchers and was able to guide the recovery of meteorites. This talk will narrate those adventures and what we have learned from studying the meteors and the surviving meteorites.
Dr. Peter Jenniskens is a meteor astronomer with the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center in California. He is an expert on meteor showers and meteorite falls and is the author of the books “Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets” (2006) and “Atlas of Earth’s Meteor Showers” (2023).

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