December 12-13, 2015 ALP Stargazing Session Report
by James Kevin Ty
Images by James Kevin Ty and 
Joaquin Fajardo

Last December 12th, ALP held a last minute decision to pursue a stargazing session to catch also the beautiful comet C/2013 US10 Catalina in the early morning of December 13th. Members who joined the last minute trip were ALP President James Kevin Ty, Treasurer Andrew Ian Chan, Iah Serna, Shubhashish Banerjee, Joaquin Fajardo and Manuel Goseco.

The sky in Caliraya , Laguna was not that good that late evening as drizzle and clear sky alternately came upon them. James brought along a light imaging setup on Canon EF100-400nn f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker; Andrew brought his Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount ; Joaquin with his Canon EF 75-300mm  f/5.6 lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker; Shubhashish with his Canon EF24-105mm f/4.5 lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker ; Manuel with his Celestron C8 Edge  SCT on AVX mount.

James was only able to image despite just recovering from fever in the morning and still got some more strength to image M42 Orion Nebula at constellation Orion as well as able to capture Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina almost near sunrise time as the comet visibility was hampered by thick clouds in the NE. Even planet Venus had a hard time peeking out of the clouds. But they were blessed with a short span of time for them to view and image it as well before sunrise.  Andrew was able to image M42 Orion Nebula, M45 Pleiades star cluster and Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina . Joaquin was able to image also the comet as well as several wide field shots of Orion and Canopus region .

Despite the weather outcome, they  were still glad to be able to see this beautiful comet with shows a prominent anti-tail as well as a long fainter gas tail. Estimated magnitude was at magnitude 4.8 but I think it is about magnitude +5.5 more or less maybe due to the thin clouds still covering the comet.  A group shot in the early morning before they head back home.

ALPer Andrew Ian Chan beside his Skywatcher 80ED refractor on Vixen GP mount.

ALPer James Kevin Ty beside his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens on Kenko Sky Memo -R star tracker.

ALPer Joaquin Fajardo beside his Canon EF 75-300mm f/5.6 lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker.

ALPer Shubhashish Banerjee  beside his Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.5 lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker.

ALPers Shubhashish Banerjee, Joaquin Fajardo  and Manuel Goseco beside Manuel's Celestron C8 Edge SCT on Celestron AVX mount.

ALPer Iah Serna beside her Canon EFS 18-55mm f/4.5-5.6 lens on Vixen Polarie star tracker.

ALPer Joaquin Fajardo beside James' imaging setup.

M42 Orion Nebula by ALPer James Kevin Ty

Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina by ALPer James Kevin Ty

Comet C/2013 US10 Catalina by ALPer Joaquin Fajardo

Group Shot

Wacky Shot !

 

 

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