July 7, 2013 ALP Monthly Meeting Report
by James Kevin Ty &  Christopher Louie Lu

Last July 7, members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP) held their monthly  meeting at Manila Planetarium.  Members who attended were ALP President James Kevin Ty , wife Charito and son Kendrick Cole KC Ty ; VP Jett Aguilar, Secretary Christopher Louie Lu & daughter Frances Lu; PRO Armando Lee, wife Mia and son Jason Lee; director John Ray Cabrera ; Mike Enage, Norman Marigza, Edge Lat, Katrina Fernando, Miguel Cajita and dad Trix Cajita,  Bel Pabunan. Liza Quitlong, Nel Lagda & guest Margareth Custodio.

Meeting proper started at around 3:00pm with ALP Secretary Christopher Louie Lu giving a lecture on Celestial Navigation.  He discussed  two of the best astronomy app available on Android based platform.  First to be featured is the Mobile Observatory Pro from KreApp Development Software. This App is filled with helpful info about celestial objects and celestial events. But the best feature this App has is to provide the user with the celestial events visible to him or her based on their location anywhere on the Earth.

The second App featured is Sky Safari Pro, arguably the best astronomy App for any mobile device or tablet. It features a beautiful representation of the night sky complete with images of most celestial objects. This App is three types; Sky Safari – for beginner/entry level experience, Sky Safari Plus – for intermediate/middle level experience and Sky Safari Pro – for advanced level experience. Also part of the Apps feature is the the “Scope” feature whereby you can control your telescope by attaching your mobile device to your telescope mount by USB port. Both App is unfortunately not for free, nonetheless, worth every centavo.

Also discussed was the current Solar Activity of AR1785 and AR1787. AR1785 has grown to be about 11 times the size of the Earth. where is now facing towards the Earth. Both Active Regions has the potentiality of giving off a high level C – class or low level M – class flares.

Finally, an update on the current situation of the Kepler mission, where the 'planet finding' probe is placed into sleep mode on May 15, due to a malfunction of one of its 'reaction wheels' which helps points the lens towards its target star. Currently, NASA is devising a repair plan for its crippled probe and hopefully this month Kepler will be back in action.

ALP Secretary Christopher Louie Lu discussed on Celestial Navigation.

ALP President James Kevin Ty encourage members to submit articles and astro images as well as help get ad sponsorship solicitation to support ALP's 10 year anniversary yearbook project.

Lastly, ALP President James Kevin Ty  inform the members of the organization's plans to come out with its 10th year anniversary Souvenir Yearbook and encourage members to submit their articles and images for use on the planned yearbook which will come out this September in time for their anniversary party. The meeting ended at around 5:30pm.