Zachary Victor C.

Villostas

The Status of Astronomy in the Philippines

PAGASA or the
Philippine Atmospheric,
Geophysical and Astronomical
Services Administration
currently promotes the study
of astronomy with its
astronomical observatory
which is located inside the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus in Quezon City. It
conducts stargazing sessions to people who are interested and request permission for use at
least two weeks before the requested time. A telescope used in the observatory is a 30-cm
reflector telescope installed in the observatory dome. This was used before the Japanese
Government donated a computer-based 45cm telescope that was installed in the observatory
which is still used until today. A National Astronomy Week is celebrated since February 16,
2003 after a series of adjustments made by the Japanese technicians. At times when the sky
is clear, stars like Vega and Sirius can be seen and also planets like Jupiter, Venus, Saturn,
Mercury, and Mars. The moon may also be observed.

Astronomy in the Philippines dates back to 1897 which is a function of the

“Observatorio de Meteorologico de Manila” (OMM), which also performs meteorological,
seismological, and terrestrial magnetism services. Its astronomical activities are limited to
timekeeping and observation of solar and stellar phenomena.

The OMM started in 1865 and became an official government agency on 1901. The
old observatory was destroyed during the Second World War and was rebuilt in 1954 at the
University of the Philippines Diliman, which is the observatory stated above.

Currently, there are only two bodies that performs astronomical functions, namely
PAGASA and the National Museum Planetarium, which is a government institution under
DepEd and houses a planetarium.

PAGASA is funded and supervised by the Department of Science and Technology

(DOST). A section in PAGASA for astronomy is the Astronomy Research and Development
Section which is staffed by 19 professionals and 16 sub-professionals employees.
 PAGASA holds 13 telescopes, 7 of which are small telescopes and 5 which are 25-cm
MEADE and 1 18-cm MEADE telescopes. 4 of the 25-cm telescopes are distributed to four
provinces, namely Legazpi, Cebu, Davao, and Cagayan De Oro – four regional stations of
PAGASA – to promote astronomy in the provinces.

The greatest addition to the observatory was

the Japanese telescope provided by its government
through its Cultural grant-aid program. A renovation
was done in 1999 and was installed in 2000. It was first
open for use in 2001. The donated telescope has a
photometer and a spectrograph as its accessories, but
the photometer was stolen on 2003. In 2001, Gunma
Astronomical Observatory of Japan donated an ST8
CCD which is a multi-purpose instrument which can
serve as a cooled CCD or Charged Couple Device which
can record moving or still images when connected to a
computer. When used with the SBIG CFW-8 Color Filter Wheel then the ST-8 camera, it can
produce tri-color images, which combines to produce colored images. The spectrograph was
also repaired so that the donated CCD could attach to it, instead of a photographic camera.
The observatory was also equipped with an Rb/GPS Timing System which replaced the old
Quartz clock in 2004. The timing system is being used for determining the Philippine Standard
Time up to the nearest tenth of a second. The atomic clock also is equipped with a Network
Time Protocol system that allows the use of the internet to show the time for public use.

PAGASA also has a planetarium at the

PAGASA Science Garden, in Quezon City. It has
an 88-seating capacity. It mainly educates its
visitors to the scientific concept of the
universe. The topic includes the history and
possible future, size, and contents of the
universe and the development of the solar
system.
References:

BIG MODEL ST-8 CCD IMAGING/STAR TRACKER SYSTEM AND THE MODEL ST-8i INDUSTRIAL
CCD CAMERA (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2019 from
http://www.company7.com/sbig/products/st8.html

Astronomy (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2019 from http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/astronomy