From: Radu-Mihai Anghel
Date: Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 8:48 PM
Subject: Messier Marathon, 18-19 March 2020, Bacau, Romania

Hello,

I'm writing to you about the Messier Marathon hold in Bacau, Romania on the night of 18-19 march 2020 with a total of 103 objects.

My name is Radu Anghel and i work since June 2016 at Bacau Observatory and Planetarium, Romania.
In 2018 I tried for the first time the Messier Marathon, with 32 objects in couple hours, then in 2019 with 52 objects in half-night.
I was getting ready for the 21-23 March period for the marathon, but the weather forecast made me to advance the date for the night of 18-19 March 2020.  
Location: 15 km away from Bacau, Romania 46d30'43.4"N 26d49'30.8"E (46.512057, 26.825223). 
Sky Quality: 21.25, Bortle 4, with very good seeing.
The time below is for local time (GMT+2h).
The instruments used in tandem were (I tried to see each object trough all tree of them):
- SW 4" ED100 + 11mm, 20mm, 25mm. (103 objects)
- Zeiss Telementor 63/840mm + 16mm, 25 mm. (68 objects)
- Levenhuk Atom 10x50 binoculars (52 objects)

The sunset was at 18:22 local time and everything was ready to go at 18:30.

The sunset objects became visible after 19:30
M31, 32, 110 - 19:30
M33 - 19:34
M52 - 19:42
M103 - 19:46
M74 - 19:48 (it was the third try - at 19:30 and 19:40 was not visible)
M77 - 19:52
M76 - 19:55
M34 - 19:57
M79 - 20:00

Winter objects:
M45 - 20:03
M1 - 20:05
M42,43 - 20:06
M78 - 20:08
M35 - 20:13
M36, 37, 38 - 20:15
M41 - 20:18
M93 - 20:20
M46, 47 - 20:23
M50 - 20:26
M48 - 20:29
M44 - 20:31
M67 - 20:32

Leo & Ursa M. objects:
M95, 96, 105 - 20:38
M65, 66 - 20:43
M81, 82 - 20:48
M97, 108 - 20:53
M109 - 20:56
M40 - 20:58
M106 - 21:05
M94 - 21:10
M63 - 21:15
M51 - 21:21
M101 - 21:28
M102 - 21:33
M53 - 21:35
M64 - 21:41
M3 - 21:43

Virgo objects:
M98 - 21:48
M99 - 21:50
M100 - 21:52
M85 - 21:55
M84, 86 - 21:57
M87 - 21:59
M89, 90 - 22:01
M88 - 22:03
M91 - 22:04
M58 - 22:20
M59, 60 - 22:22
M49 - 22:25
M61 - 22:27
M104 - 22:30

Rest time. I took wide field images for C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) & M81-82 until 01:30, then I got back to visual.

M83 - 01:50
M68 - 01:52

Summer objects:
M5 - 02:10
M13 - 02:11
M92 - 02:14
M57 - 02:16
M56 - 02:19
M29 - 02:20
M39 - 02:25
M27 - 02:27
M71 - 02:30
M107 - 02:32
M12 - 02:37
M10 - 02:37
M14 - 02:40
M9 - 02:43

Scorpio & Sagittarius objects:
M4 - 02:55
M80 - 02:57
M19 - 03:00
M62 - 03:02
M16 - 03:22
M17, 18 - 03:25
M24 - 03:26  
M25 - 03:28 
M23 - 03:30  
M26 - 03:32
M11 - 03:33
M20, 21 - 03:35
M8 - 03:37

One hour break for imagining Jupiter-Mars conjunction.

M28 - 04:42
M22 - 04:44
M6 - 04:50
M7 - 04:51
M69 - 04:55
M70 - 05:00
M54 - 05:02

The Moon (23%) was rising and the weather changed.

At the end - 103 Messier objects.

Missed objects:
M15 (clouds), M75, M72, M73, M55, M75 and M30.


Clear skies!

 
Radu M. Anghel