October 13-14, 2012 ALP Caliraya Stargazing Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty, Gary Andreassen, Oliver de Guzman, & Arnel Campos

Last October 13, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) went to Caliraya , Laguna to have their stargazing session under dark sky.   Members who were present were ALP President James Kevin Ty, wife Charito and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty; Gary Andreassen , wife Irma and son Steinar ; Arnel Campos , and Oliver de Guzman.

They individually proceeded to the site at their own pace but mostly arrived at the site at around 6:30pm. The sky was clear but dew was very heavy but heavy dewing translates to good transparency  thus they weren't disappointed this time around. James brought along his TV-101 refractor on Vixen GP-DX mount with ATIK-16HR ccd camera as well as his portable setup in Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Kenko Sky Memo-R mount ; Arnel with Explore Scientific 102mm refractor on EQ-1 mount ; Gary with his Celestron C6N Newtonian reflector and Canon EOS1100D DSLR on Orion SVP EQ-5  mount, while Oliver de Guzman brought along an Orion ST-80 refractor with Pentax +ist DS DSLR mounted on Synta EQ-2mount

The sky was almost 80% clear the whole night till morning despite some small partly low altitude clouds that pass once in a while.  But due to heavy dewing, the soils was a little soft thus all of them experience tripod sinking into the soft sol a bit thus polar alignment needs to be done once in a while due to this circumstances.  James had to forgo his CCD imaging plans because of the sinking tripod problem and opted to concentrate on his backup DSLR imaging through the Kenko Sky Memo.and image M45 Pleiades star cluster, Comet 168/P Hergenrother and M42 Orion Nebula.  Arnel opted to use his Canon EOS 550D DSLR on sturpdy tripod to image the Summer Milky Way in the early evening; Gary was able to image M42 Orion Nebula while Oliver de Guzman had a good time imaging numerous DSOs such as M42 Orion Nebula, M31 Andromeda Galaxy, Flame Nebula, M35 star cluster, Rosette Nebula.

They got to image till the early morning before dawn and captured the thin crescent Moon as well as its beautiful earthshine.  They then took their traditional group pic before heading to Jollibee for their breakfast en route to going home :)

ALPer Arnel beside his Explore Scientific 102mm refractor with Canon EOS 550D DSLR on EQ-1 mount.	ALPer Oliver de Guzman beside his Orion ST80 refractor with Pentax *ist DS DSLR on Synta EQ-2 mount.
ALPers Gary and Steinar Andreassen beside their Celestron C6N newtonian reflector with Canon EOS 1100D DSLR on Orion SVP EQ-5  mount.	ALPer James Kevin Ty beside his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Canon EOS 500D DSLR on Kenko Sky Memo-R mount.
M45 Pleiades star cluster by James Kevin Ty	M45 Pleiades star cluster by Oliver de Guzman
Milky Way by Arnel Campos	Orion by Arnel Campos
Polaris Star Trail by Arnel Campos	Comet 168/P Hergenrother by James Kevin Ty
Flame Nebula by Oliver de Guzman	M31 Andromeda Galaxy by Oliver de Guzman
M42 Orion Nebula by Oliver de Guzman	Rosette Nebula by Oliver de Guzman
M42 Orion Nebula by James Kevin Ty	M42 Orion Nebula by Gary Andreassen
Earthshine by James Kevin Ty	Waning Thin Crescent Moon by James Kevin Ty

Group Shot

Chow Time Before Going Home :)