Observing Sessions

Last June 16th, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) celebrated International SUNDay by giving a free public solar viewing session at SM By The Bay at SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City. Members who helped out were ALP President James Kevin Ty and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty ; Auditor Edgar Ang, Director Peter Benedict Tubalinal and Per Edman. James brought along his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens set with Daystar Quark Chromosphere Ha Filter mounted on Vixen Porta II mount ; Per brought along a Coronado PST Ha scope mounted on Coronado Alta-zimuth mount.

The weather in the mid afternoon was cloudy and lots of Nimbus clouds that finally poured hard around 3:00pm! The thought of cancelling the event and resked next weekend was under consideration but they decided to stick it out and test their patience and they were blessed at around 4:00pm when the clouds stated to disperse and the Sun came out behind the clouds and allowed them to share the solar view to more than 300 people despite the weather condition. The Sun in Ha wavelength showed a quiet Sun with only a moderate size prominence visible in the NE limb.

The event ended at around 6:00pm when the Sun once again hides in a very thick cloud layer that ended the session. A tiring but very productive event!

Group Shot

Wacky Shot

ALP celebrated International Observe the Moon Night (InOMN) last October 20, 2018 at SM by the Bay Sunset Park from 7:00-9:30pm. Members who are present are ALP President James Kevin Ty and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty; Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, Secretary Justine Garcia, Per Edman, Mike Enage, Vincent Gella , Mark Ian Singson and Adi Bontuyan. James brought alonmg a Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope ; Mike with his TMB92 refractor on MG2 mount ; Per with his Orion XT6 Dobsonian reflector ; Vincent and Mark brought identical Celestron Travel Scope 70mm on sturdy tripods.

Around 200 people get to view the Waxing Gibbous Moon as well as planet Mars before clouds and light drizzle ended the event at around 9:30pm.

Group Shot

Wacky Shot

Last July 28, Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) set up with a free public planetary and total lunar eclipse observation session at SM By The Bay Amusement Park at SM Mall of Asia. Members who were present are ALP President James Kevin Ty and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty; Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, Secretary Justine Garcia , Auditor Edgar Ang , Edwin Gatia and Michella Esparas and Per Edman.

Despite a drizzling weather, they started to setup their telescopes at around 8:30pm . James brought along his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Canon EOS M6 mirror less camera mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker ; Andrew with his Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount ; Kendrick Cole with his Canon EFS 55-250mm f/5.6 IS lens with Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker ; Edgar with his Celestron Nexstar 90GT refractor ; Per with his Orion ST80 refractor on sturdy tripod. The sky was a very cloudy as well as intermittent drizzling the whole night! On short drizzling and cloud breaks, members were able to show the Full Moon to some public people at the park. No planets were observed that evening due to bad weather.

After past midnight, the total lunar eclipse started and members were able to observe and image the partial phase of the eclipse midway before the entire sky got clouded out as well as rained the whole event thereafter. Members were hopeful to get a chance to observe and image totality through clouds but failed miserably.

Some ALPers in the Southern Philippines as well as Thailand were more blessed to observe some totality phase. Christopher Go was lucky to observe the event past totality in Thailand before getting clouded out. Same goes to Val Thomas Abapo in Cebu.