Messier Marathoning

March is almost here! The month of March is 'Messier Marathon Month'
for those residing in the mid-northern hemisphere of Earth -- weather
permitting.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?
What instrument(s) do you plan on using?
At what magnification(s)?
From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?
On what date(s)?
Alone or with others?
Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

Sketcher
To sketch is to see.

Sketcher wrote:
March is almost here! The month of March is 'Messier Marathon Month'
for those residing in the mid-northern hemisphere of Earth -- weather
permitting.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?
What instrument(s) do you plan on using?
At what magnification(s)?
From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?
On what date(s)?
Alone or with others?
Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

Sketcher
To sketch is to see.

I'm not much for pushing myself in such pursuits, but I certainly do get
out at least once in the Spring for a _long_ night of observing, picking
off as many M's as I can at a leisurely pace.

In fact, I go out for two long sessions every year, once in Spring to
catch as many Summer constellations as I can before the "bug" weather
sets in, and then once again in Fall to catch the winter constellations
before the cold comes. During the summer, I get out whenever the
temperature is low enough to keep the bugs at bay (below 50 degrees F,
is pretty okay), and in winter, when it's warm enough to be comfortable
for long durations (above 30 degrees F, is pretty okay).

The Spring and Fall sessions have me out there with a long list. The
Spring session I might do with the GoTo, and the Fall with charts and a
Telrad. Those two sessions pretty much satisfy my apetite for observing
faint DSO's for the entire year. The little sessions in between, will
find me observing the well known brighter objects, or simply being
enamored with a planet, like Mars, Saturn or Jupiter. Even Venus can
keep my attention for quite a long time. And let's not forget the moon.
These are often hours long subjects of observation, that don't need a
chart or GoTo to find, just the scope, a couple of eyepieces in the
pocket, and a chair in which to relax and enjoy the show.

This year, I have a new imaging setup consisting of a Vixen GP w/GoTo, a
Konus 200mm F5 reflector and a modified Digital Rebel. I might do
something interesting with that setup. Like using the GoTo to speed
things along and imaging as many M's as I can. I have from now until
then to practice with ISO settings and exposure times. I won't concern
myself with making them super pretty, just some down and dirty images,
to show that I was there. I'll even piggy back the ST80, so that I can
at least get a quick look at them, and make sure the GoTo is on target. :-)

-Stephen Paul

1. 18" Tectron Truss Dob

2. General searching - 104X (Televue 22mm Panoptic)
Detail Viewing - 254X (Televue 9mm Nagler)

3. Pick Two:
Arizona City (All Arizona Messier Marathon)
Friends back yard, Vail Arizona
Las Cienegas, Arizona

4. 3/4, 3/5, 3/12, maybe April

5. No fun alone

6. 1996 - gave up half way through - Meade 10" LX5
1998 - 109 Meade 10" LX5
2003 - about half, gave up early - Celestron 14" Starhopper

Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else

"Sketcher" wrote in message
...
March is almost here! The month of March is 'Messier Marathon Month'
for those residing in the mid-northern hemisphere of Earth -- weather
permitting.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?
What instrument(s) do you plan on using?
At what magnification(s)?
From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?
On what date(s)?
Alone or with others?
Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

Sketcher
To sketch is to see.

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 12:03:43 -0700, Sketcher
wrote:

March is almost here! The month of March is 'Messier Marathon Month'
for those residing in the mid-northern hemisphere of Earth -- weather
permitting.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?

The New Hampshire Astronomical Society is getting together to attempt
a Messier Marathon on March 11. I will be there.

What instrument(s) do you plan on using?

14" TScope (f/4.7 Newtonian Dob).

At what magnification(s)?

The main eyepieces I'll be using will be a 1rpd 30mm wide field
and a TeleVue 32mm Plossl. These give 52x and 55x, respectively.

From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?

New Boston, New Hampshire. In the green zone of the North
American light pollution map. Don't know the elevation;
approx. 43 degrees North latitude.

On what date(s)?

March 11.

Alone or with others?

With others.

Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

This will be my first MM attempt. I'm really looking forward to
it.

Clear skies,

-Paul W.


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The Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada traditionally
holds a Messier Marathon on the cloudiest night in March. This year we will
be out on March 12th (ok....you've all been forewarned). We gather at our
observatory south of Calgary with a variety of instruments. Everyone who
participates receives a certificate listing the date and the number of "M"
objects observed. I don't know that anyone from our club has ever found all
110 from our site in one night, but a few guys have come close.

51 N, 114 W 1043 Meters

Duff

D. Couillard wrote:
The Calgary Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada traditionally
holds a Messier Marathon on the cloudiest night in March. This year we will
be out on March 12th (ok....you've all been forewarned). We gather at our
observatory south of Calgary with a variety of instruments. Everyone who
participates receives a certificate listing the date and the number of "M"
objects observed. I don't know that anyone from our club has ever found all
110 from our site in one night, but a few guys have come close.

51 N, 114 W 1043 Meters

Duff


M30 can not be seen from your latitude before sun up in March, so 110 is
not really feasible. I have tried and failed from 42 degrees north
several times. Have seen it from Tucson, however.

Jule J. DuBois at 42N 89.6W

In answer to my own questions:

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?

Count me in -- if I can manage to stay awake!

What instrument(s) do you plan on using?

My primary instrument will be a 13cm f/6 refractor. 25x100 binoculars
may be used for those objects that hide behind trees, etc. from where
the refractor is set up.

At what magnification(s)?

A 30x eyepiece providing a 2.1 degree true field will be in the scope
for most, if not all of the session.

From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?

I'll most likely make the attempt from my rural backyard (somewhere in
the neighborhood of magnitude 6.0) at an elevation of 3,000 feet. My
latitude is approximately 45 degrees north.

On what date(s)?

Next weekend with the following two weekends as backups. Earlier
clear evenings will be used to 'get the hang of' bagging those first
few troublesome Messiers. If I get ambitious I'll even try for some
morning preview sessions!

Alone or with others?

As with most sessions, I'll be observing alone.

Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

I can recall only one attempt that started out seriously. I don't
recall the year; but it wasn't too far back. IIRC, shortly after
checking off the Virgo galaxies a warm bed became too much to resist.

Sometimes the option of hitting different groups of objects on
different nights seems to be the more reasonable approach; but then it
wouldn't be a single, all-night marathon!

Sketcher
To sketch is to see.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?

Me!

What instrument(s) do you plan on using?

C9.25 & Orion 8x40 Outsider Binoculars

At what magnification(s)?

From 8x (binocs) to 304x (on Jupiter - seeing dependent)

From what location (sky darkness, elevation, latitude)?

27° 46' N 82° 80' W, sea level
Shell Key near St. Petersburg, FL. Need a boat to get there. Darkest skies
in our county - which is not saying much. The south and western skies over
the gulf are pretty good.

On what date(s)?

Actually going out for the first week in April - should be our dry season -
we'll see.

Alone or with others?

Company coming in from NY for the event. Probably -10 folks in all. We
usually camp for 2 nights on the beach. It's our last camping opportunity
for the year - Florida camping season is Nov-April - Then it gets too hot
and humid.

Have you attempted a Messier Marathon before? Outcome?

By accident - when I first got the binocs. I found 13 messier objects,
Jupiet, Saturn and comet Machholtz. Not exactly a marathon -but more than
a short walk - maybe a messier foot race?

Jack Coletti
St. Petersburg, FL

Sketcher wrote:
March is almost here! The month of March is 'Messier Marathon Month'
for those residing in the mid-northern hemisphere of Earth -- weather
permitting.

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this month?
What instrument(s) do you plan on using?


HI Sketch:

The C11. The _GOTO_ C11! :-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Who plans on bagging as many Messier objects as they can this
month?
What instrument(s) do you plan on using?

The C11. The _GOTO_ C11! :-)
Rod

Taking the bus this year, Rod? g
I believe they're calling that the Messier 'Tour' now.
But good luck!

I'll be taking my 30x80 MegaViews on their maiden Marathon.

-SSX
Ready to tackle the Herschel 400?
http://www.geocities.com/saberscorpx/SGH400.html