Leonids with Saturn, M42, and M41

It's been awhile since I went out with my org-mates to observe the night sky. On a whim, I decided to go to the public observation of the 2010 Leonids Meteor Shower at the PAGASA Astronomical Observatory Sundeck. It was already 10pm and I was only browsing through the Facebook profile pages of family and friends anyway. So I thought to myself, "why not do something more productive like socialize, right? I mean socialize with real people who move in the real-world."

I've been to a lot of meteor shower observations already so I wasn't as psyched about the observation per se. I was more excited to see who else was going. :) My plan was to stay for only an hour though, two hours tops.

I was there until 4AM!

The night turned out to be more fun than what I had expected. Although I didn't see a lot of old faces and didn't really get to acquaint myself with the new ones, I had the pleasure of meeting Copernicus--Erika V.'s 8" Sky-watcher Flex-tube Dobsonian.


Although I didn't get to see a shooting star (what the heck, right?!?), I got to marvel at Saturn and deep sky objects M42 and M41.

SATURN


M41


M42


As usual, seeing these objects gave me chills. And there I thought none of them could surprise me anymore since I've already "gotten used" to seeing these heavenly objects. Yeah, right...

It was a great night. Not only did we get to observe beautiful objects we also got to talk about a lot of stuff--our dreams and our passions. :) Ad astra per aspera indeed! It was totally worth the puyat.

Here's a shot of the sky just before dawn. This lovely shot was taken by Erika V.


How I wish I brought my camera with me.

Lesson learned: Celestial objects, stargazing, astronomical observations will never seize to amaze me.

How dare I think otherwise?

Leonid Meteor Shower on Dateline

It was my first ever T.V. appearance :-) Well, technically, second. The first one was during the oblation run when the PBB housemates were here in UPD -- the camera caught me with other star struck UP students shouting and chanting names of celebrities. It was awful. Hehe Pero, nakaka-star struck nga naman talaga ang mga artista. Wala ng pakeme-keme that time, wala ng pa-demure effect. My mom and siblings actually saw me on T.V. Twas so funny. Dude, I was such a wuss.

Anyway, this afternoon was totally different though. I sat with Stanley and Lia (ANC news anchors) and talked about the recent Leonid meteor shower. It was LIVE! And I didn't know we were gonna go live until we got to the ABS-CBN building. I was really nervous. They seemed so smart and I kept on thinking, "Man, I couldn't keep up with these guys! What am I gonna say? Can I still back-out??" I was literally looking for the nearest exit. Dubdub-dub-dubdub...







When we were finally asked to go on stage with the two prestigious broadcasters, my edginess just started to diffuse and dissolve. It was probably the very warm smile of Stanley and Lia. It also helped that Stanley started a small-talk with me and DJ while we were inside the make-up room. Lia was kind enough to tell us before we went on-air that we don't have to worry about the cameras. She told us that we just look at them and it's just be like talking over a cup of coffee... minus, of course, all the lights, the camera, and the cameramen.



Meron kayang part two, este part three, itong TV appearance ko? Finally, my course paid off. Mwahahahaha!

Leonids Meteor Shower

It's so on tonight at 10pm 'til the break of dawn! Yikee! So, so excited. I wonder what I'd wish for... hmmm...

Starlight, starbright...
I wish I may, I wish I might...
Grant this wish, I wish tonight...