Do we have an astronomy club here in Cebu?

[yukikiller]

---

interested pud ko ani... unta successful ang pag establishug group for the astronomy enthusiasts.

[jfox]

for the astronomical enthusiast out there here are the activities for December.

Meteor Shower

The annual Geminids Meteor Shower will reach its peak in the night of December 14. Meteors or "falling stars" can be seen at an average rate of sixty meteors per hour under a dark and cloudless sky which the Quarter Moon set just after midnight. The shower will appear to radiate from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins, which will be located in the eastern horizon, you can report your observation using the methods and report forms at the International Meteor Organization site, International Meteor Organization | International Collaboration in Meteor Science.

Total Lunar Eclipse

A Total Lunar Eclipse will occur on December 21 and will be visible in the Philippines. The entire event is visible from North America to western South America. Observers along South America's east coast will miss the late stages of the eclipse because they occur after moonset. Likewise most part of Europe and Africa experience moonset while the eclipse is in progress. Only northern Scandinavians can observe the entire event from Europe. For observers in eastern Asia including the Philippines, as the Moon rises the eclipse is on its ending stage. The eclipse is not visible from south and east Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. The eclipse will begin at 1:29 PM Philippine Standard Time (PST) and will end at 7:04 PM (PST).

In Manila, the moon will rise at 5:36 P.M. on 21 December and will set at 6:57 A.M. on 22 December.

Happy Sky Watching !!!

from PAGASA.

[rodsky]

for the astronomical enthusiast out there here are the activities for December.


Total Lunar Eclipse

A Total Lunar Eclipse will occur on December 21 and will be visible in the Philippines.

For the general public, this will be a disappointing lunar eclipse because, unless you have an exceptionally clear view towards the eastern horizon at 5:45 pm on this day, you will never witness anything special. In fact by the time the moon climbs to the sky by 7pm, murag normal looking na siya. Sadly, we're on the end part of this eclipse mao nga I don't necessarily encourage the general public to look at it, basin ma disappoint ra mo.

Experienced amateur astronomers who have good equipment (i.e. telescope+digicam+filters, or DSLR+filters) can still attempt to photograph the penumbral covering at 5:45-6:00PM, but with an elevation angle of less than 5 degrees, it's really nearly impossible to do so in smog-ridden Cebu City.

-RODION

[anakin]

sa usc-tc man to sa una ako nahibaw-an
sa applied physics to na department.

usc-astrosoc

[jangska]

nindot sad ni dah..

[tirabotski]

nindot sd ni dah..

[observer]

Anyone caught the "meteor shower" last night? Anyway, I thought I'd like to share this experience. I got bitten by the astronomy bug lately. But I never thought it would be easy to find your way through the night skies using a software like Stellarium. Just set your location 10 degrees 19 minutes North latitude and 123 degrees 54 minutes East longitude, and you're good to go.

We had clear skies last night, between 10 to 12am (not a single cloud). To get straight to the point, I didn't see a "shower" or anything resembling fireworks display, like what they said to expect in the news. Instead, I saw a streaking bright object that pops in and out for a split second, every 10 minutes or so. Most of them appeared in between the northern and eastern celestial sphere. After about my 7th sighting (almost midnight), I called it a night.

One thing about stargazing though is that it's hard to be disappointed when you have clear skies. Last night provided me a good opportunity to acquaint myself with some of the constellations for December. Jupiter, for one, is easy to pick out. It's the next brightest object to the moon. The easiest constellation to spot this month is the Orion. It has the unmistakable three bright stars lined up. With decent pair of binos (I bought mine, a 15x70, from Amazon for approx $60...not bad, IMO), you can train your sights below Orion's belt (no pun intended) and see the Orion nebula. This is just breathtaking. I never thought I could see nebula with just a pair of binos. Orion also features the intriguing red giant, Betelgeuse (if you're like me and you've never seen what a red star looks like, this one really answers that question). The Pleiades in Taurus is also a nice cluster, although every time I spotted it, my neck would hurt because it's close to the zenith (mag hangad gyud ka). The Andromeda galaxy is harder to find (but the pointer star in Cassiopeia will lead you to it), and when you do find it, it only looks like a feint smudge. It makes the hard work un-rewarding. But what can we do? Kutob ra man gyud ta sa binoculars. I can just imagine what a powerful telescope would reveal.

Although I'm an absolute beginner in stargazing, I have to say that I'm really amazed how a software can accelerate one's familiarity with the night sky. I do hope this hobby catches on and Cebu can someday have regular star parties like the ones they have in the US. Who knows? With enough interest, we might see affordable large-aperture telescopes in the future.

[anakin]

Anyone caught the "meteor shower" last night? Anyway, I thought I'd like to share this experience. I got bitten by the astronomy bug lately. But I never thought it would be easy to find your way through the night skies using a software like Stellarium. Just set your location 10 degrees 19 minutes North latitude and 123 degrees 54 minutes East longitude, and you're good to go.

We had clear skies last night, between 10 to 12am (not a single cloud). To get straight to the point, I didn't see a "shower" or anything resembling fireworks display, like what they said to expect in the news. Instead, I saw a streaking bright object that pops in and out for a split second, every 10 minutes or so. Most of them appeared in between the northern and eastern celestial sphere. After about my 7th sighting (almost midnight), I called it a night.

One thing about stargazing though is that it's hard to be disappointed when you have clear skies. Last night provided me a good opportunity to acquaint myself with some of the constellations for December. Jupiter, for one, is easy to pick out. It's the next brightest object to the moon. The easiest constellation to spot this month is the Orion. It has the unmistakable three bright stars lined up. With decent pair of binos (I bought mine, a 15x70, from Amazon for approx $60...not bad, IMO), you can train your sights below Orion's belt (no pun intended) and see the Orion nebula. This is just breathtaking. I never thought I could see nebula with just a pair of binos. Orion also features the intriguing red giant, Betelgeuse (if you're like me and you've never seen what a red star looks like, this one really answers that question). The Pleiades in Taurus is also a nice cluster, although every time I spotted it, my neck would hurt because it's close to the zenith (mag hangad gyud ka). The Andromeda galaxy is harder to find (but the pointer star in Cassiopeia will lead you to it), and when you do find it, it only looks like a feint smudge. It makes the hard work un-rewarding. But what can we do? Kutob ra man gyud ta sa binoculars. I can just imagine what a powerful telescope would reveal.

Although I'm an absolute beginner in stargazing, I have to say that I'm really amazed how a software can accelerate one's familiarity with the night sky. I do hope this hobby catches on and Cebu can someday have regular star parties like the ones they have in the US. Who knows? With enough interest, we might see affordable large-aperture telescopes in the future.

what you saw was the geminid meteor shower... they happened every mid-december... you
should have focused your gaze on constellation gemini as the meteors tends to emanate from
that area (hence the name geminids)... kita sad ko last night around midnight and ubay2x sad ako nakita but they were mostly short and faint meteors unlike the leonids in 2001!

starry starry night is also a good software.

[rodsky]

Anyone caught the "meteor shower" last night? Anyway, I thought I'd like to share this experience. I got bitten by the astronomy bug lately. But I never thought it would be easy to find your way through the night skies using a software like Stellarium. Just set your location 10 degrees 19 minutes North latitude and 123 degrees 54 minutes East longitude, and you're good to go.

We had clear skies last night, between 10 to 12am (not a single cloud). To get straight to the point, I didn't see a "shower" or anything resembling fireworks display, like what they said to expect in the news. Instead, I saw a streaking bright object that pops in and out for a split second, every 10 minutes or so. Most of them appeared in between the northern and eastern celestial sphere. After about my 7th sighting (almost midnight), I called it a night.

One thing about stargazing though is that it's hard to be disappointed when you have clear skies. Last night provided me a good opportunity to acquaint myself with some of the constellations for December. Jupiter, for one, is easy to pick out. It's the next brightest object to the moon. The easiest constellation to spot this month is the Orion. It has the unmistakable three bright stars lined up. With decent pair of binos (I bought mine, a 15x70, from Amazon for approx $60...not bad, IMO), you can train your sights below Orion's belt (no pun intended) and see the Orion nebula. This is just breathtaking. I never thought I could see nebula with just a pair of binos. Orion also features the intriguing red giant, Betelgeuse (if you're like me and you've never seen what a red star looks like, this one really answers that question). The Pleiades in Taurus is also a nice cluster, although every time I spotted it, my neck would hurt because it's close to the zenith (mag hangad gyud ka). The Andromeda galaxy is harder to find (but the pointer star in Cassiopeia will lead you to it), and when you do find it, it only looks like a feint smudge. It makes the hard work un-rewarding. But what can we do? Kutob ra man gyud ta sa binoculars. I can just imagine what a powerful telescope would reveal.

Although I'm an absolute beginner in stargazing, I have to say that I'm really amazed how a software can accelerate one's familiarity with the night sky. I do hope this hobby catches on and Cebu can someday have regular star parties like the ones they have in the US. Who knows? With enough interest, we might see affordable large-aperture telescopes in the future.

They're more affordable than one might think, especially if you have a knack in doing do-it-yourself projects. A group I once belonged in was able to make a 4.5" Dobsonian reflector made out of mostly junk parts plus around 3,000 PHP for new parts. The primary and secondary mirrors were donated by an ALP member who took it out of a broken Newtonian. This "junk" telescope was good enough to resolve Saturn's rings using 12mm and 4mm eyepieces (donated too, some of which were also handmade), plus Titan. Jupiter's EQ bands are also quite visible, and of course, great for observing lunar craters and other features.

-RODION

[analog man]

OT

I once saw in my own naked eyes, kanang ila gitawag ug iring buwakaw
a blue shiny flame that flew horizontally. I was in a boat, watching the island lights, and suddenly, it came across. the light. the buwakaw.

daghan mi nakakita adto kay ubay2X man mi nanigarilyo sa barindilyas sa barko.

anybody can explain it to me? unsa man to?