ALP GAM Philippine Messier Marathon Open 2016

The Astronomical League Of The Philippines, Inc. (ALP) hosted its annual Philippine Messier Marathon Open 2016 as part of its celebration of Global Astronomy Month. This is one of the 4 scheduled GAM activities that ALP intends to participate. More than 70+ participants which includes special participation of ALP, Manila Street Astronomers, Guild for Astronomy Innovation & Advancement, UP AstroSoc & UPLB AstroSoc. ALP members who attended the event were ALP President James Kevin Ty, VP Jett Aguilar , Secretary Christopher Louie Lu, PRO Edge Lat, directors Shubhashish Banerjee and Peter Benedict Tubalinal ; Manuel Goseco, Jan Karlo Hernandez , Adriel Lim, Ruel Bermudez, Allan Renan Acosta, Alejandro Quilang, Melsejoy Degala , Mark Ian Singson and Nathaniel Custodio.

Messier Marathon participants as well as ALPers started to arrived at Ecosaddle at around 4:00pm and they started to pitched their tents as well as set up their telescopes to prepare for the overnighter event. ALPer James Kevin Ty brought along his Canon EOS1000D (M) DSLR with Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens mounted on Kenko Sky Memo-R star tracker; Jett Aguilar with his Canon EOS 6D DSLR with Takahashi Epsilon E-180 astrograph mounted on EM-200 mount ; Christopher Louie Lu with his Canon EOS 450D DSLR with EFS 55-250mm on Vixen Polarie mount ; Manu Goseco with his Celestron Edge 8" f/10 SCT on AVX mount as well as a home made 12" f/5 Truss Type Dobsonian reflector ; Nathaniel Custodio with his SBIG STF8300 CCD camera on Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L lens on Vixen GP-DX 2 mount ; Allan Renan Acosta with his Fuji XE1 with Opteka 650-1300mm f/8 lens on sturdy tripod ; Jan Karlo Hernandez with his Nikon D90 DSLR with Celestron C6 Newtonian reflector on CG4 mount ; Peter Benedict Tubalinal with his 12x50 binoculars ; Alejandro Quilang with his Celestron Powerseeker 70AZ refractor and Nikon D5100 DSLR with Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.2 lens on sturdy tripod . Shubhashish Banerjee with his Celestron Powerseeker 70 AZ refractor and 10x50 binoculars.

The sky the whole evening till 4:00am is almost perfectly clear so it was a special gift for all participants to enjoy the beauty of the universe. The Milky Way was awesome the whole evening till dawn!

As for the Messier Marathon event, 35 participated on the event and the results of their Messier hunting are as follows:
Peter Benedict Tubalinal - 84
Mark Ian Singson - 53
Shubhashish Banerjee - 50
Christopher Louie Lu - 47
Kenneth Bailador - 45
Sheinna May Claro - 41
Manuel Christian Schuldes - 41
Irrie M. Villaverde - 40
Jose Angel Jude Telan - 33
Miguel Bacaoco - 28
Phoebe Pura - 27
Rheanne Odessa Jimeno - 27
Ralph Tiburdo - 27
Edgardo Tuyo - 26
Andrea Manabat - 25
Mary Margarette H. Rosario - 25
Bernadette Joy Detera - 25
Kea Jayne A. Cabigau - 23
Camille Anne T. Cipriano - 22
Babie Rose Quiniquis - 22
John Michael Egana - 20
Clintzone G. Batino - 20
Jilian Princess P. Bathan - 20
Louesito G. Loria - 20
Emanuele Berardi - 20
Gabrielle Berardi - 19
Guiseppe Vasquez - 18
Jester Temporada - 18
Dashzya Ley S. Oliveros - 16
Samantha Urag - 14
Julienne Frances De Castro - 8
Manelyn P. Filio - 6
Christopher Tuazon - 3
Kathleen Dado - 4
Harland Balucating - 4

Congratulations to the participants! Looking forward next year for their participation once again and logging more objects!

http://astroleaguephils.org/archive/news/160409starparty.html