ALP 2008 Anniversary/Mooncake Dice Game
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty and Alice Villa-Real

Last September 21, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) held their 5th anniversary party as well as their annual Moon Cake Dice Game at the residence of ALP directress Alice Villa-Real. Members who were present that day were James Kevin Ty and his wife Charito and son Kendrick Cole (KC) Ty; Jonathan Alcartado and his wife Ellen ; Hernando Bautista, Brian Davis , Jomar Lacson , Vincent Lao , Dr. Armando Lee and his wife Mia and son Jason Lee ; Joel Limcangco , Ma. Belen Pabunan , Rich Pijuan , Aran Lester Rueda and his cousin Rayyan Adams Cipriano ; Henry So, Alfonso Sy , Angie Tan, Tommy Tan , Omar Turqueza , and host Alice Villa-Real.

The potluck lunch started at around 12:00pm with  members bringing some foods to share with fellow ALPers. At around 1:00pm, members started to have their lunch while chatting with members. At around 2:30pm, ALP Treasurer Henry So who was the yearly guru on the annual Moon Cake Dice Game  started to prepare the prizes that are going to be included in the game.  This year's grand prize was a portable DVD player with 7" TFT screen as well as 2 units of Bushnell 50mm zoom binoculars as second prize and so forth.  There are 6 levels of prizes that can be won by participants depending on how much luck they got in rolling the dice :)

ALPers had a great time chatting with each other on what's the latest in astro gadgets and news.	Delicious food brought by members to lunch! Yummy!
It's Chow Time !!!	Dr. Armando Lee (center) had a great time discussing with Hernando Bautista (left) on his new Celestron Nexstar 8 while Brian Davis (right) looks at its optics.
This year's Moon Cake Dice Game's Prizes	Henry So : " Man, I should win this  zoom binocular as it looks great!!!"
The Handsome Boys and the Fairest Ladies :) LOL	Henry So , our Moon Cake Dice Game Guru explain to the participants on the rules of the games as wel as what are the correspondent prizes that are at stake.
Numbers are drawn by ALP members so as to determine who will dice first and so forth.  Let the game begins !!!	ALPers strike a pose before the start of the annual Moon Cake Dice Game!
The handsome young  ALPers strike a pose.  May kakasa ba? :) LOL	Angie Tan prays hard that she can get the top prize portable DVD player with 7" TFT screen or maski yun second prize binoculars will do na :) LOL
Ellen Alcartado (Jon's wife) got one of the 2 zoom binoculars at stake!!!	Dr. Armando Lee's son Jason tries his luck on the dice game for the first time! "Papa, did I win the top prize?" :) LOL
ALPer Vincent Lao bags the top prize!!!	ALP president James Kevin Ty and Dr. Armando Lee discussed what had transpired during the last NOC-IYA meeting on September 17.  They also discussed with fellow ALPers on what activities the ALP will do for next year's celebration of International Year of Astronomy (IYA).

ALPers posed for posterity after celebrating the 5th anniversary of ALP.  Long Live ALP !!!

Henry then explain the rules of the game to the participants so that everyone will know the basics or mechanics of the game.  As the game progresses , the 2 units of binoculars were won by Jon Alcartado wife Ellen and Aran Lester Rueda's cousin Rayyan Adams Cipriano.  The grand prize was won by Vincent Lao with a combination of 4 4s and 2 1s. Although that combination is the lowest, no one was lucky enough to beat that combination in the entire event!  So congratulations to Vincent for winning this year's "Chiong Guan" or Grand Prize ! They then had a group picture taken for posterity! 

Afterwards, members then took a break for  some snacks and refreshments before they start with a short meeting in which ALP president James Kevin Ty along with Dr Armando Lee explained to the board and members the minutes of their meeting with National Organizing Committee - International Year of Astronomy (NOC-IYA) last September 17 as well as ALP preparations for the upcoming IYA soft opening on January 19, 2009 ; its participation on the 100 hours of Astronomy which will be held on April 5, 2009 as well as ALP's plans for their solar eclipse expedition team to the July 22, 2009 Total Solar Eclipse in Wuhan, China.

The whole affair ended at around 7:00pm.

More activity images can also be viewed at Alice's Starbird webpage .

For Comments jkty@astroleaguephils.org