Monday, December 26, 2016

Twas the Dawn Before Christmas

Our family was traveling North for this Christmas to visit our relatives and our first stop was in Agoo, La Union - our grandparents' place. The house there was renovated a few years back and my grandmother put into consideration that I was an astronomer and added an astrodeck for my use. As we arrived at around 2 AM I looked up right away, as most astronomy inclined person does, and I saw that the sky was just perfect. Typhoon Niña (Nock-Ten) was underway and I had to take advantage of the sky condition. I immediately rushed up and set my camera to image the sky while the rest of the family went to bed.



I have always enjoyed the night sky from this area. The night sky is dark in this area with a low population density and the West Philippine Sea bordering on the West. The municipality I was in only accounts for 8% of the population in the province. Unfortunately, some unshielded lights have been recently installed in the North-Eastern side (hence my source of illumination in the picture above). Nevertheless, they are still within manageable observing conditions.