March 8, 2009 ALP Monthly Meeting Report
by:  James Kevin Ty
Images by Jett Aguilar & James Kevin Ty

Last March 8, 2009 , members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP)  held their monthly meeting at the Manila Planetarium.  Members who were present are ALP President James Kevin Ty,  wife Dr. Charito Ty and son Kendrick Cole Ty, VP Dr. Jett Aguilar,  Treasurer Henry So, Membership Chairperson Angie Tan,  Secretary Rich Pijuan, Directors Alfonso Uy  , Edgar Ang & Peter Benedict Tubalinal,   NAW Chairman Dr. Armando Lee, wife Mia and son Jason Lee , Vincent Lao, Dennis Buenviaje, Andrew Ian Chan, Tommy Tan, Antoinette Icot, Rosalyn Penol, Marc Anthony Honrade, Planetarium OIC Bel Pabunan ,  staffs Nel Lagda & Desiree del Rosario .

The meeting started at 3:15pm with a solar observation on both white light and H-Alpha light at the grounds of the Planetarium.  It was also time for ALP President James Kevin Ty to teach the newbies on how to center the Sun into the telescope field of view using the scope's shadow and tube alignment techniques without getting their eyes hurt.  They first use the Orion ST80 refractor to view the Sun in white light and, later, James used another scope, the PST, for members to get a chance to view the Sun in H-Alpha light.  Although the Sun was very silent in white light, there was a large eruptive prominence visible at the 8 o'clock position, much to the delight of the ALP members.

Everyone gathers around the PST to get a glimpse of the Sun in H-Alpha light.	Hey!  It's posing time again :)  Smile!
ALPer Edgar Ang gets to view the large eruptive prominence at the 8 o'clock position!	ALP President James Kevin Ty reads the content of the MOA between ALP and RTU to the members.
Shown here is ALP President, James Kevin Ty, discussing the training  program for the total solar eclipse expedition team members.	ALP NAW Chairman Dr. Armando Lee gives an overview of what transpired during the just concluded National Astronomy Week (NAW) celebration.

At around 4:30pm, ALPers went inside the Planetarium dome and meeting proper started with ALP President James Kevin Ty introducing NAW Chairman Dr. Armando Lee as speaker. Dr. Lee gave the members an overview of what transpired during the National Astronomy Week (NAW) particularly the 1st Philippine Astronomy Convention (PAC), as well as the closing Free Public Stargazing Session at Baywalk.

James added that although the events were successful , he still stressed the need for members particularly the directors to participate more to ALP activities and put some priorities to the organizational activities as they should show good works for new members to follow.  Also stressed out was the need  for members to sacrifice a little of their own time, whether personal chores or own observations, to help the organization promote its activities, specially what transpired in the closing free public stargazing session at Baywalk.

He told them that he will expect more participation on the part of the members, particularly the directors, to be present during ALP-initiated activities, especially in the upcoming March 28th 3rd Philippine Messier Marathon Open in Caliraya, Laguna and 100 Hours Global Star Party at Baywalk on April 4, 2009.

James then introduced ALP director Peter Benedict Tubalinal, who is tasked to head the Messier Marathon event. Dr. Lee informed Peter that 4 of the RTU Asro Tech student 2nd batch will participate in the event while ALPers Vincent Lao, Dennis Buenviaje, Edgar Ang, Andrew Chan also signified their intention to join as well. All are invited to join the event, whether members or non-members.  For details, please contact Messier Marathon 2009 Chairman, Peter Benedict Tubalinal, at (0928) 9379479 and ALP Membership Chairperson, Angie Tan, at (0917) 3265577 if you want to join.

Also mentioned during the meeting is the designation of ALP director Jomar Lacson to handle the Fund Raising Project for the ALP LCD project. He will be given a free hand in using different methods of fund raising to help ALP reach its goal of owning its own projector.

Afterwards, James invited the total eclipse team members to join their first training day that is scheduled this coming March 15 (Sunday) 1pm at PAGASA Observatory.

The meeting ended at around 6:30pm.