Last February 22nd, Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) celebrated National Astronomy Week (NAW) 2020 by providing another simple free public stargazing 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 as well as director Peter Benedict Tubalinal and members Mark Ian Singson and Eris Raniel Palomeras. They started their session at around 7:30pm as there was a 30 minutes Drone Show at our setup site. James brought along Celestron C90 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope mounted on Nexstar SLT mount as well as Borg 76ED refractor on Vixen Porta II mount ; Mark brought along his Meade 90mm f/11 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope mounted on sturdy tripod were setup for the event. More than 350 people were able to observe planet Venus, bright stars Sirius, Canopus and Betelgeuse and M42 Orion Nebula through the telescopes.
The 5 of them were able to share to the viewers the beauty of the night sky despite KC not feeling well due to stomach cramps but determined to stay the whole event pressure and tiredness on the event. Hats off also to member Mark and Eris who despite living in Cavite and Pangasinan respectively still joined to helped out to make the event another successful one! They packed up at around 10:00pm to wrap up the NAW 2020.
