Up Close and Personal with the Moon

Most of you who have been following me on Instagram (@densfan) would have seen my close-up photo of the moon. Since a lot of you have been asking about it, I thought i'd share that experience in a post.

This adventure started when my youngest sister, Trixie, wanted to do star gazing on her birthday. My other sister discovered this place in UP Diliman where you can actually do just that. But God had other plans. Instead of letting us see stars, we saw various planets and the moon in all its glory.

We got there around 8:30pm and there were no other visitors but us. The place is quite old and not exactly tourist friendly. Even though the idea sounds romantic, the place definitely is not. It's more like an educational experience for the kids. And, of course, for adults who want to be amazed with astronomy.

For only P25 per head, you get to borrow the huge telescope that will allow you to see the moon, stars and various planets up close.

Troy was the first one to take a peek. And his reaction caught all of our attention. At the first sighting of the moon, Troy exclaimed 'Wow, this is so cool!!!' And all of us rushed to get our turn. And indeed it was.

 

We also got to see various planets which look like stars through the naked eyes. But with the telescope, this is  how Saturn looked like.

It was a wonderful experience for the kids. They say the best time to go is during the months of December to February when it's not as cloudy or rainy.  It's best to call them up first to check weather and visibility conditions before going.

It's a great experience for the entire family. For those of you wondering how i took those shots above. It's really just getting the right angle with my iPhone on the telescope lens. Not much science to it.

The UP Diliman Observatory is open 24 hours and is located inside the UP Diliman campus.

 

UP Diliman Manila Observatory

426-5921

426-0837

426-6495