National Astronomy Convention

In line with the National Astronomy Week, the Rizal Technological University held a National Astronomy Convention with the theme "Enticing Filipinos Through Visions of Astronomical Progress"

RTU President, Dr. Jesus Rodrigo F. Torres

Keynote address by Dr. Catherine Castaneda, Director IV - CHED NCR

Plenary Speaker 1: Solar Observation by Dr. Jett Aguilar, Vice President of the Astronomical League of the Philippines

Plenary Speaker 2: Stellar and Planetary Atmosphere by Michael Bala, Weather Specialist 1 RDTD PAGASA

Plenary Speaker 3: Planetary Geology by Erika Valdueza, Msc Geomatics Engineering

Plenary Speaker 4: Solar Observation workshop by Norman Marigza, Head of the RTU-Solar Observation Program

Plenary Speaker 5: Gravitational Microlensing by Dr. Reinabelle Reyes, PhD, KICP Fellow in Princeton University

Plenary Speaker 6: Binary Stars by Dr. Thijs Kouwenhoven, PhD, Research Professor at Kavli Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University

Plenary Speaker 7: Image Acquisition and Processing by Mr. Christopher Go, discoverer of Red Spot Jr

Plenary Speaker 8: Space Weather by Professor Emanuel Sungging, Researcher at Lapan, Pusan Sains Antariksa, Indonesia

Plenary Speaker 9: Active Galactic Nuclei by Dr. Dading Nugroho PhD, Lecturer and Trainer for the Indonesia Astronomy Olympiad National Team

The Filipina Who Proved Einstein Right

My father recently brought home a Filipino-Canadian newspaper from Canada and on it was an article entitled "The Filipina Who Proved Einstein Right." It was an article on Dr. Reinabelle Reyes which refers to her work on how galaxies are clustered together as would be predicted by Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

The original article is found here in Rappler.com.


In science, part of the work is to prove/disprove or even improve concepts and theories so that they would become a reliable basis on our understanding of the universe. Take, for example, the concept of a Sun-centered view of our solar system - it took more than a decade and lots of scientists who have lived and died to overthrow the Earth-centered view. Every time a scientist argues they add new concepts or data that strengthens the theory.

Likewise, in modern physics, most theories are theoretical and based on our knowledge and understanding of universe. For every theory we try to put it to a test by subjecting it to experiments to verify it or see its applications in other situations in nature. What Dr. Reinabelle Reyes did was use Einstein's understanding of gravity and apply it to some situations in the universe to see if the predictions match the observations.

RTU Pre-NAW Lecture Series

February 14, 2011
As part of the pre-NAW celebrations of Rizal Technological University's Department of Earth and Space Sciences, the RTU Astrosoc conducted a lecture series.

The first lecture was conducted by Miss Girlie Cortez, a 3rd year BS AstroTech student of RTU. Her talk was entitled "The Anatomy of a Comet". This was her very first talk, and despite being nervous, her content was good.

The second lecture was conducted by our very own filipina astrophysicist (a celebrity to the Filipino astronomy community :D), Dr. Reinabelle Reyes from the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. She is currently working on her post-doc at the University of Chicago where she is studying galaxy formation. Her talk was entitled "The Birth and Death of the Milky Way," a talk she will be giving also in other places such as the recently opened Mind Museum in Taguig. During her talk she focused on three questions which served as a guide in identifying how our own milky way came to be: 'What are we? (Where are we?)'; 'Where did we come from?'; 'Where are we going?'. After her talk there was an open forum where several questions were raised by an interested crowd which Reinabelle generously addressed.

Dr. Reinabelle Reyes with Dr. Jesus Torres, president of RTU, after her talk.

Following after was a thesis deliberation by the 4th year BS Astro Tech students [Pauline Pearl Divinagracia, Maria Angela Lequiron, & Miguel Artificio]. Their thesis was entitled the Development of Astronomy Instrumentation in the Philippines. They pointed out the different astronomical equipments that are present in the Philippines.

After the program ended, Dr. Reinabelle Reyes graced the RTU students with a photo-op and took some time to answer more questions.

From left: Engr. Tangco, Dr. Reinabelle Reyes, Lordnico Mendoza, Ryan Guido, Ruby Ann dela Cruz, Ma. Angela Lequiron, Pauline Pearl Divinagracia, Frank Kelvin Martinez