The Philippine Astronomical Society held a Milky Way camp in Tanay, Rizal, on the weekend of the 15-16th March 2024. I went along to have a chance to meet some fellow astronomers, and possibly image some new targets I don’t get to see from my usual location.

It was a fun time, but the weather didn’t fully cooperate. A few clouds at the start of the night delayed getting started imaging, and then after I retired to the tent leaving a sequence to shoot some light rain started and the rigs needed tote quickly covered by tarp to protect them.

I started the night by introducing a first timer to what the equipment is and how it works. Took him through the process of getting polar aligned, and plate solving to find the targets to shoot. We then captured some images of the horse head Nebula and Orion, simply because they are bright enough that he could see something right away without the need for post processing.

After this I moved onto imaging the Seagull nebula for several hours before it started to be washed out by the lightdome of Manila. The waxing crescent moon also didn’t help!

Then I moved onto Bodes Galaxy and finally the Whirlpool Galaxy, but Bodes was cut short by the inclement weather.

Here’s the final image I managed to salvage from the night, the Seagull Nebula. This is around 2 hours of data, it’s a starting point for more!

• Facebook
• X
• ShareCopied to clipboard