Deep Sky Imaging Session - April 18-19, 2015

The weather was very unstable and we are reluctant to proceed for a stargazing session in Caliraya. But after getting info that the predicted mild to moderate rain expected that morning didn't materialize. I together with some members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines proceeded to go to Caliraya, Laguna to conduct their stargazing session there. members who were present were ALP President James Kevin Ty, directors Ronald Sison and Peter Benedict Tubalinal and her daughter Stephanie ; Edward Legaspi. Some friends and office mates of Ronald Sison also join the group. They arrived at the site at around 6:00pm more or less. The sky was partly cloudy and they even had some short light burst of rain as they are about to arrive at the site. But after an hour, clouds started to break up and they were able to see some stars near the zenith. Polaris was visible so they quickly polar align their mount and waited. James brought along his Canon EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens on Kenko Sky Memo star tracker as well as Canon EFS10-22mm f.3.5-5.6 wide angle lens on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker. Peter brought along a 12x50 binoculars mounted on sturdy tripod ; Edward brought his Polarie Star Tracker with various lenses to do some wide field astro imaging ; Ronald brought his WO GT81 FD refractor on Skywatcher EQ5 mount and Various lenses on Vixen Polarie Star Tracker. The sky that evening has some long spell of clear skies and short cloudy periods as well. The sky totally opened up at around 2am-4am before totally clouded out. During that time period, I was able to image single exposures of Summer Milky Way and NGC 3372 Eta Carina Nebula and stacked image of Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex in Scorpius. Peter also used that evening to teach her daughter the night sky as well as teach Ronald's office mates how to navigate the night sky :) After taking the traditional group shot, they left at around 8:30am feeling wonderful that they were still blessed with some good night skies to enjoy the beauty of the heavens.