Largest Telescopes in the Philippines

Here is another Philippine astronomy demographic regarding the largest telescope in the Philippines. In terms of astronomical optics "bigger is better". When the aperture (diameter of objective lens/mirror) of a telescope is larger it results to higher light gathering power, resolution, and useful magnification.

Manila Observatory

• Aperture: 19" Merz Refractor
  
• Historically the largest telescope in the Philippines, and in Asia during its time
• Destroyed by the Japanese during the Battle of Manila
  

PAGASA Astronomical Observatory

• Aperture: 18" (45 cm)
• Focal:
• Type: Reflector
• Status: In use, however mount is misaligned due to sinking ground of the observatory.
• Location: UP Diliman, Quezon City  

 

Akutsu Cebu Observatory

• Aperture: 18"
• Type: Newtonian Reflector (homemade)
• Status: Recently transported from Japan (2023), and to be opened to the public on 4 March 2023
  
• Location: Bonbon, Cebu City

 also,

• Aperture: 14"
• Type: Schmidt-Cassegrain
   

 

 Science Centrum

• Aperture: 17.5" 
• Focal: f/4.5
• Type: Reflector
• Status: Currently unknown (was previously on display in the Makati branch)
  
• Location: N/A

Stardust Observatory

• Aperture: 16"
• Focal: f4.5
• Type: Reflector
• Status: Maintained
• Location: South Drive, Baguio City

 *The C14 previously listed has been sold. A RASA 11 is now currently installed in its place

UP NISMED Observatory

• Aperture: 16" (40 cm)
• Focal:2000 mm
  
• Type: Reflector
• Status: Maintained

also,

• Aperture: 8"
• Focal:
• Type: Refractor (largest refractor currently in the Philippines)
• Status: Maintained 

 

Rizal Technological University

• AstroTech 16
• Aperture: 16" (40 cm)
• Focal: --
• Type: Ritchey-Chretien
• Mount: Paramount ME
• Status: Functional
• Location: Currently housed in the Alnitak Observatory
  

also,

• PlaneWave Instruments CDK14
• Aperture: 14" (35.56 cm)
• Focal: 2563 mm
• Type: Corrected Dall-Kirkham Astrograph
• Mount: Astrophysics GTO 1100
• Status: Functional
  

also,

• Meade, LX850
• Aperture: 14" (35.56 cm)
• Focal: 2845 mm, f/8 [with focal reducer for f/5]
• Type: Schmidt-Cassegrain
• Status: Functional
• Location: Currently housed in the Mintaka Observatory
  

 

New Era University

• Aperture: 16"
• Type: Ritchey-Chretien
• Status: Functional
  

Christopher Go

• Celestron, C14
• Aperture: 14"
• Focal:
• Type: Schmidt-Cassegrain
• Status: Maintained

Exploreum

• Celestron, C14
• Aperture: 14"
• Focal:
• Type: Schmidt-Cassegrain
• Status: Unknown (Exploreum permanently closed down during the pandemic)
  

Information gathered with assistance from the Philippine Astronomy Forum.
Last updated on 19 February 2023

Celestron Omni XLT 150 R - Review

Last Saturday, the MS Astronomy students from RTU took the Celestron Omni XLT 150 R to Timberland Heights (15 mins away from Quezon City) for some stargazing in the mountains.

The telescope is a 6 inch (150mm) achromatic refractor mounted, via dove-tail, on a CG-4 German equatorial mount. It has good reviews for viewing deep-sky objects. It has a focal ratio of f/5 (focal length 750mm). The telescope makes use of the StarBright XLT coating which allows maximum light transmission. The finderscope attached is a 6x30 straight through achromat with a 7 degree field of view.

When viewing the Orion Nebula, the Trapezium stars are very well resolved and there is good contrast to the surrounding cloud layer. The stars of the Pleiades were also finely resolved.

In observing Jupiter, there is a violet halo resulting from chromatic aberration.

We also tried to do some prime focus imaging since the eyepiece holder has built-in T-threads, however the telescope requires a focal extender in order to put the image to focus. Neither planetary or deep sky targets can be focused by attaching the camera with the T-ring to the eyepiece holder's T-threads.

Travel Scope 70 Review

I recently acquired a Celestron Travel Scope 70 from Cutting Edge as an early Christmas gift from my father. It was one of three affordable grab-and-go scopes sold - the other being the Firstscope and the Travel Scope 50 (both less 4k; and the scope at 4470). The Travel Scope 50 had bad reviews so I avoided it. I wanted to get the C90 Maksutov but it was out of the available budget range..hehe. This will be my 2nd refractor, the other being a Tasco 2-inch(?).

The Travel Scope series portable telescope is specially designed for traveling. Both the 50 and 70 are compact refractors suitable for terrestrial and astronomical observing.

The TS 70 has a 70mm aperture in a compact body (17 inches long). It comes with a full size photographic tripod, a 5x24 finderscope, two eyepieces (20mm and 10mm - nothing special) and custom backpack for traveling. It also comes with TheSky x First Light edition. The scope only weighs 3.3lbs making it very easy to carry around. Also, the optics are fully coated. The assembly was quite easy too, I didn't even use the manual (well, that could just be experience speaking).

The tripod was quite shifty though. Try touching the focusing knob while viewing a bright star and it will dance to your touch. It's more stable when collapsed to it's lowest height - more like a table-top scope like the Firstscope. Also, it seems like the tripod couldn't hold the whole weight when pointed towards the zenith. I think the tripod is the biggest let-down. Anyways, you can't expect much from the mount for the price.

I wasn't able to observe much during my first attempt due to poor observing conditions but I was able to view clearly the Double-Double in Lyra, and low-magnitude stars in the tail of Scorpius in a wide field of view. On my second attempt, I had Jupiter in sight and was amazed at the amount of detail I could see. I could make out the bands of Jupiter and saw all 4 Galilean moons. Online reviews say they can see the Trapezium with it, I have yet to test that for myself.

Oh, yeah! It isn't written down in the features but the focuser on the TS 70 has a T-thread on it for SLRs via T-rings. I wonder why this key feature is not mentioned? Just make sure to change the tripod before attempting to attach a weighty SLR.

Although the magnifications attainable (with the given eyepiece) are lesser than the Travel Scope 50 (especially since it comes with a Barlow lens), the TS 70 has a higher aperture for higher maximum useful magnification. Therefore, upgrade your eyepiece and you get better images.



Basically, you can just replace the eyepiece and the tripod with better ones and you get a great scope at a low price! ^_^

Alpha

It's good to finally sit down and write here again :)

Well, this post is about a telescope I call Alpha. I'm surprised I wasn't able to write anything about it yet. I purchased the scope from Allen Yu using my prize money from the IYA 2009 National Olympiad.

My scope is a Skywatcher Explorer 150PL telescope (Black Diamond). Although I don't have the equatorial mount, I still have the mount built by Allen.


I have used this scope in the physics department's stargazing, and am very pleased with the results. I'm beginning to favor this scope over the departments C8 that I usually operate.

Over the past two months, I wasn't able to use it. I was only able to use it on Tuesday, and was I lucky.. I was able to use it on Jupiter (for the first time) and also on the elusive comet 103P/Hartley.

A lunar image taken via the Explorer 150PL via afocal method

First Look - astronomy enthusiast Princess Rabino gets her first look at Alpha

Armed and Ready :)

Last Thursday, me and my 1st year research assistants were preparing for doing my thesis. We had nothing to do for the mean time so we sat down and ate Mr.Chips. Suddenly, we saw Jupiter clear out from the clouds, so we immediately rushed to assemble the department's Celestron 8 (which we call Big Bertha).

When we focused on Jupiter, we were able to notice the Great Red Spot (Whoa!). After Jupiter, we looked around and trailed on to the Orion nebula. I recalled the view of the Trapezium from UP, and wanted to share it to them. Our telescope wasn't able to resolve the image well enough, but still we could distinguish the four baby stars surrounded by a cloud of interstellar gas.

Later that evening, Saturn came out and we all enjoyed looking at its rings (We even forgot about the thesis). Unfortunately, clouds began to cover up our view. So we began doing nothing.

I decided to check on the old telescopes that were in the cabinet (talk about dusty). I looked around for their mounts and found three equatorial mounts, I don't know which mount was for which telescope. Later, I was able to figure out which telescope belonged to which mount. Unfortunately, they were quite rusty and dusty. We set up one of the old telescopes and I thought my assistants how to do tracking.

We were all excited about having all 5 department telescopes functional that my assistants gave the old ones names after big bertha. One was given Berting, the other was called Bertot (i actually called it Milk shake).

Now that all 5 telescopes are ready, we are excited for our next stargazing session! :)

International Year of Astronomy

This coming 2009 is the international year of astronomy. It was declared by the IAU (International Astronomical Union) for this year since it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's observation of the sky with a telescope.

If you could recall, the telescope was invented by a dutch lens maker. It was developed by Galileo and used to observe the sky. This is the first time a telescope was used for astronomy; and now is considered one of the most important tools of astronomy.

Official site for the Philippines:
http://www.astronomy2009.ph/
Pandaigdigang Taon ng Astronomiya
Philippine National Node