ABOUT ME

Hi! My name is James Kevin Ty. My interests are in astronomy, photography  and travels. I started astronomy when I was still 11 years old. Between that time to around 1982, I settled to learning the constellations, planets and the Moon using just a pair of opera glass. A year later, I saved a little money to buy myself a cheap 20x50 refractor. With this scope, I was able to view the Moon and the bright stars. Eventually, I discovered how bad chromatic aberration ruined the image. I then urged my father to buy me a pair of 16x50 binoculars and I used this to further my observations of the bright star clusters and nebula.

It was in the year 1985 that I joined the Philippine Astronomical Society. During that time, Comet Halley was around to keep us busy. It was then that I bought a 50mm f/16 refractor on an altazimuth mount and I was very excited to view the night sky. When I turned the scope to the planet Saturn, I was very delighted to see the ringed planet! Although the view was only at 100x, the small image of this planet was forever etched into my mind. Next came the famous M42, the Great Orion Nebula, in the constellation of Orion. I was disappointed to know that there was no color in this nebula! I thought that my scope was damaged as it was not showing me what I saw in my astro books. I learned later that the photos in the books were taken with film, which was more sensitive than our naked eye to capture the colors.
 

During my early stage as a member of  the society, Edwin Aguirre and Imelda Joson taught me to be serious in this field and I am thankful for their advice. Both of them are now residing in the U.S. and are working at the Sky & Telescope magazine as associate editor and photo editor respectively. I also met Jun Lao and he gave me some ideas on how to photograph the stars, thus saving me a lot of time to learn and start from scratch. I later developed my skills in astrophotography and had been shooting deep sky objects, comets, planets, eclipses, etc. whenever the weather was clear during weekends. After observing the total solar eclipse in General Santos , Cotabato last March 18, 1988, I got hooked to observing solar eclipses.  I lef several PAS eclipse expeditions such as the 1995 expedition at Khon Buri, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand; the 1997 expedition at Darhan, Mongolia; the 1998 expedition at Pulau Dayang, Malaysia : the 1999 expedition in Stuttgart, Germany and the 2009 expedition at Wuhan, Hubei Province , China.

 In 1998, I decided to setup PHILASTRO-FORUM MAILING LIST  so that local amateur astronomers can have a mailing list to discuss and share their astro experiences on any and all astro related topics. I was also responsible for setting up the first PAS webpage that introduced the society to the cyber world also on the same year. The PAS awarded me the Padre Faura Astronomy Medal Award in the year 2000.  I was the president of PAS from 1997-2003.

In 2000, I decided to switch to digital astrophotography and started out using a Nikon Coolpix 995 compact digicam to shoot my favorite subject, the Sun, as well as high resolution lunar imaging.  After getting acquainted to the compact point and shoot digicam, I made another jump into the Digital Single Lens Reflex  (DSLR) camera in 2003 and used it to image deep sky objects such as nebula, galaxies, star clusters as well as solar system objects such as the Moon, the Sun, comets, etc.  I was the first one in the country to use the DSLR system in astrophotography.  Later, I also added computer color webcam such as the Toucam Pro 740K and the monochrome ATK-1HS II to image the planets as well as for solar and lunar work.

I set up the Astronomical League of the Philippines, Inc (ALP) together with 12 other amateur astronomers in 2003. I am the president of the organization since its inception. I  plan to lead another total solar eclipse expedition, specially with members of the ALP, to the May 20, 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse in Xiamen , China as well as to the March 9, 2016 Total Solar Eclipse in Borneo.

I work as a Sales / Account Executive of Gainsway Marketing Corporation and Astra Paper Corporation.  I also do professional technical consultancy for schools and other companies on astronomy-related projects and equipment acquisition. For inquiries, I can be reached at jkty@astrophotophils.com .

I have also been a Canon user ever since I started out in astrophotography in 1985. I am still endorsing and recommending the Canon EOS system to my friends because I feel that with Canon, you can always rely on its quality and sharpness.  Canon Philippines also supported the ALP July 22, 2009 Total Solar Eclipse Expedition team which I led. They loaned to us several  Canon hi-end DSLRs as well as EF L series lenses as a show of support.

In 2010,  I also acquired the portable Kenko Sky Memo-R mount and together with the Canon EOS system and lens, I now have a highly portable imaging setup which can be brought to any location without much problem with regards travel weight and space. More importantly, I can still rely on its quality tracking and image quality despite its portability. In 2012, I also will start to do some CCD imaging after acquring a used ATIK 16HR with color filter wheel and narrow band filters to bolster my quest for better deep sky images.

 

 

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All the pages, text and images found in this site are (c) Copyright 2000-2012  by  James Kevin Ty.  Any use of these materials in any form without the prior written consent or knowledge of the author is a violation of Philippine and worldwide copyright laws and may cause the author to send lawyers after you. Since the author is a very reasonable and approachable person, ask his permission and might probably work out a reasonable arrangement.