November 17-18, 2012 ALP Caliraya Stargazing Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty, Gary Andreassen , Mike Enage & Oliver de Guzman

Last November 17, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) went to Caliraya , Laguna to have their monthly weekend 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 ; Mike Enage, and Oliver deg Guzman.

They individually proceeded to the site at their own pace but mostly arrived at the site at around 6:30pm. The sky was surprsingly clear. James brought along his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens on Vixen GP-DX mount with ATIK-16HR ccd camera ; Gary with his Celestron C6N Newtonian reflector and Canon EOS1100D DSLR on Orion SVP EQ-5  mount, Mike with his ETX125 Maksutov-Cassegrain mount, Oliver with his Orion ST80 refractor as well as assortment of camera lenses with Pentax Kx camera and EQ-2 mount.

The sky was clear mostly all night and wind was not strong as well but dew is as expected without strong wind and most of them have dew heaters and heat packs to counter it :) Oliver had a great time imaging the whole night out with assortment of DSOs with wide angle and telephoto images. Gary and Mike got to image some and most of the time observe instead, James , on the other hand, tried to do his CCD imaging again this time on the Horsehead through HaRGB filters and come out with success on his attempt despite some problems encountered in autoguiding the mount bu the mount was pretty stable ad tracks well even unguided for 5 mins subexposure.  That was the only object he got to image that whole session as total exposure was 4 hours!  Nevertheless, James was happy with the results and looking forward next imaging session to get even better results.  CCD frost or condensation was addressed this time around as he put dew heater strip on the CCD nosepiece as well as let the CCD cool down for more than 30 minutes before starting his exposure.

They then headed home after  their traditional group shot and looking forward to next month's stargazing session again.

RGB Image of NGC2024 Flame Nebula & B33 Horsehead Nebula in Orion by James Kevin Ty	HaRGB Image of NGC2024 Flame Nebula & B33 Horsehead Nebula in Orion by James Kevin Ty
M31 Andromeda Galaxy in Andromeda by Gary & Steinar Andreassen	Constellation Orion showing Barnard's Loop by Oliver de Guzman
Orion's Belt Region by Oliver de Guzman	Quarter Moon by Mike Enage
M45 Pleiades Star Cluster in Taurus by Oliver de Guzman	Constellation Orion by Mike Enage
M33 Galaxy  in Triangulum by Oliver de Guzman	M81 & M82 Galaxy Pair in Ursa Major by Oliver de Guzman
James CCD setup which shows lots of wirings to connect laptop, telescope, dew heaters, autoguiding cables, etc :) LOL	Serious Group Shot before heading home.

See you next month's stargazing session!