Well; Even though we missed AJ, we managed to have fun without him. I counted 107 vehicles in twilight on Saturday evening, we had 25 on Friday! So, plenty of folks showed up to take in the activities, I understand someone managed 108 objects between the cloud banks, I know Rick Tejera did 107. I know that Jack Jones will have the official count at the club meeting. I took some astro-images with the help of Al Steiwig, thanks again Al. I will see how those turned out in daylight. We hooked up Al's Canon camera to my old Pentax thread lenses and got some decent results. I had a chance to walk around and chat with lots of folks, as usual a fun bunch of people. Including Don Machholz, one of the first Messier Marathoners. Clear skies to us all; Steve Coe ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The night turned out to be about 75% cloudy, but that didn't stop quite a few of us from running the marathon. Somebody counted 110 or so vehicles, which isn't bad for such an obviously murky night. I heard a couple reports of 107, but no perfect scores yet. I would not be dubious, though, as somebody could have looked at M74 or M30 at the right instant as it passed between clouds. Here's my personal account. I saw 105 Messier objects last night. It was one my the most challenging nights of observing. I failed to see M74, but it was in the clear for a few minutes when it was dark enough, so maybe a larger aperture than 70mm would have pulled it in. In the early evening, it was apparent that the north was going to go away fast, so I worked on sweeping up all of the object of high declination through Ursa Major before even going after Orion through Puppis, where it was very clear. M33 was extremely difficult and fleeting, and I bet a lot of folks missed it. I wonder if anybody got M31 and its two companions. I had to wait until morning, when I failed to see it again. I did all of my viewing at 18x in the Pronto, so some objects like M76 took real effort to detect. And some galaxies between clouds were tougher than I was expecting. All of the open clusters in Messiers catalogue were beautimous in the little refractor. At 10:20, it had cleared completely, and stayed good for a couple hours, when I was able to cruise through the galaxies in Virgo and Coma. At 11:00, I had 61 objects, and napped through 3:00, when I was greeted by more mostly cloudy. I took on the last dozen objects in a strange order, dictated entirely by local clearings. I managed to see M73 but not M72, doing the same for M55, while missing M75. I was able to get M72 and M75 just before twilight, and just barely. I could believe that M30 also became visible at some point, but I was messing with M72 at the time and didn't get to it. So I wound up with 105, missing M74, M31, M32, M110, and M30. Glad I made the trip, as it was an enjoyable night. I hope some other observers had a chance to point the scope at the rising crescent moon, which looked great when the bands of clouds were passing in front of it. Tom ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It was truly one of the more challenging marathons I've done. To start things off on the wrong foot, my Telrad on Gert (the 8") broke, one of the collimation screws broke off. Not sure how or when but that was quite a rude surprise. It took me quite a while trying to find two decent alignment stars while the cloud are creeping in on M74 & co. I thought I had finally gotten a decent alignment on the Sky Commander but Nooooo. I punched up M42 just to check the alignment and it was pointing me about 25 degrees off, somewhere in Eridanus. Tried again, same result. Much silent cursing ensued. Finally just shut the whole thing down and aligned the Meade ETX 60, which I used exclusively for the rest of the night. Like Tom, 60mm was probably just not enough aperture to pull in M74. M77 was tough, but it was there. The Andromeda trio & M33 were well behind clouds at this point. Cassiopeia was partially visible and I got M 52, but missed M 103. I later learned many folks had just the opposite problem. I also finished off the high Dec objects as that was were the cloud cover was heading. Next up was the southern winter objects. I was able pick off everything through Leo by 2100. By now the sky looked like the roof was closing at BOB (Sorry, just can't call it Chase Field yet). I took the opportunity to sit and chat with Steve Coe, Dave Fredericksen & several other folks while we waited for better conditions. An hour & a 1/2 later it looked like we would get a break as things were breaking up. And there were again stars in the sky. I then finished up the Virgo cluster & a few other eastern objects that had risen in to Hercules. By 2300 it was nap time. Got up at 0130, changed batteries in Polly (the ETX), realigned and got back to it. Easy pickens through Scorpius with the teapot of Sagittarius just rising. Now it was wait for stuff to rise. This is were it got interesting. As tom Mentioned previously you had to adapt your routine to the whims of the weather. More than once I went to an object when the sky was clear there only to have it cloud up by the time my eye made it to the eyepiece. Picked off a few objects as they rose. Saw M6 with the hills in the eyepiece. Grabbed M 103 on the upswing through a sucker hole. I got M73, and quickly slewed up to M72. Caught sight of it just before it disappeared into the clouds for good. Just plain dumb luck. When the Andromeda trio rose high enough, I was able to see M 31 & M32, but M110 would elude me as we r were now in increasing twilight. I did stop and look at the rising moon through the streaks of cloud on the way to M30, which was rather difficult. I finally called it after several taps on the eyepiece showed the same slight brightening at the same spot with averted vision three times. My final tally was 107, missing M74, M110 & M33, which would not rise in the am until after Sunrise. Although 110 still eludes me, It was definitely a fun marathon. The challenge of seeing 107 in 60mm was definitely satisfying. But I think the best part was the large turnout of folks looking for a good time under the sky. I spoke with many folks as they were turning in the sheets to Jack and they all thanked Sac for a great event. Glad we could oblige, I just wish AJ was there to enjoy it as well. It just wasn't the same without him. I hope I did a credible job subbing for the pre-event briefing:) Rick Tejera ---------------------------------------------------------------------- March 27, 2006 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon I just got back from attending the All Arizona Messier Marathon south of Arizona City. This was my first try at Messier Marathoning, and it was a pretty robust introduction. The event was attended by over a hundred amateur astronomers in a flat desert field near Farnsworth Ranch. There were telescopes of all types, shapes and sizes set up across the field when I arrived around 4:30 pm Saturday. I ran into Tom W., Ron Boe, Greg Kettell, John Moschinger, Scott Kroepple, Brent Archinal and others whose names are escaping me at the moment. John ended up setting up next to me, and I enjoyed tossing words of encouragement back and forth over the course of the night. I brought my 6" f/8 EQ newtonian and got set up on a piece of dirt with as few ant hills and ground squirrel holes as possible. Those things are real break-a-leg hazards after dark. Some of them were pretty roomy--you could probably stuff a full grown cocker spaniel in there if you tried. You might need a mallet and a shoe horn though-- Anyway. Don Machholz attended, and I caught him chatting with Brent next to his 6" f/8 Criterion telescope. My scope (foreground), John Moschinger's scope (background), and the rising Belt of Venus can be seen here: The rules for the AAMM event are pleasantly open to Go-to, Push-to and star hopping alike, with the point being that you have to observe each object visually. I went the star hopping route, because not only am I not equipped with Go-to or Push-to, but I get a lot of satisfaction from locating objects manually with charts, hands, and eyeballs. The sky conditions this night put every star hopping skill I've practiced over the past couple years to a whopping test. So, as much as I figured the Messier Marathon would be pretty challenging to begin with, locating objects through a widespread, morphing gauze of cirrus and alto-cumulus was a massive challenge. Here you can see the view to the west at sundown. See those thick cirrus swatches? M74, M31, M32, M110 and others were hiding behind them at twilight. It was a little sad to know right off the bat that there was no way I was going to get all 110. Some of those objects were far enough north that they would rise again before morning twilight for a second chance. But M74 was just hosed. With advancing clouds, my plan to systematically find objects as twilight darkened went down the drain. I grabbed what I could, just above the cloud bank and started moving eastward while keeping an eye on any potential openings in the clouds that would draw me back west. I _almost_ caught M33, but the star hop from alpha-triangulum ended 2 degrees below an unyielding curtain of cloud. I ran into a surprising frustration with M40. Ahh, M40. I've heard people complain about its loser status before, but it's one of the 26 Messier Objects I haven't had a chance to observe or sketch yet. I figured, aw shucks, a double star. I should be able to find that easily. Heh. No. I should have researched it more before heading out, because, I wasn't sure what was what. My otherwise awesome Tirion and Skiff Bright Star Atlas doesn't even deign to mark it. Not even a disgruntled footnote =) So I got no help there. I just knew the general area--a couple of degrees northeast of Sigma U.Majoris. Well folks, there are a few double star candidates in the area. After about a half hour struggling over it, John slewed over and gave me a look through his scope. After looking through his eyepiece, and then his Telrad finder, I had a little bit of insecurity about whether the view he pulled up was the real M40. It seemed too far north. But what did I know? So I farted around with it on my scope for another 20 minutes or so before Don Machholz walked up while making the rounds. He made my night by confirming that I had my scope aimed at the right field, and then describing which set of stars was M40. I re-centered the view, he took another look and confirmed that, yes, I had centered on the right object. Whew! That made my night. I hadn't planned on sketching M40 that night. But I did after that just to preserve the moment of finding that beast after wasting so much time on it at a Messier Marathon of all things. As the hunt eased into the overhead sky, cloud conditions got much better. I had been worried about the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, but it was actually the smoothest part of the whole marathon. I used an excellent finder chart by John Small that made the process a lot easier. There were lots of other fainter NGC galaxies prettying up the view, but the chart really narrowed down what's what, and where. Folks typically settle in for a couple hours of shuteye after the Virgo Cluster, and now I know why. I was beat! I've been managing 2 or 3 all-night observing sessions a year, and haven't had a horrible time with those. But the Messier Marathon turns out to be different. All the racing from object to object, twisting, hunching, nail-biting about which hole in the clouds to go for next, really takes the life out of you. Believe me, I was ready for a nap. But I also wanted to get a jump on the morning objects. Especially since I wasn't sure what the clouds would be doing in another couple hours. And what if another one of my as-yet-unobserved objects turned out like M40? So I took a half-hour munchie break, and then started hitting the bits of Cygnus, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius that had risen. By 2:30 AM, I had found 79 objects, and Sagittarius was high enough to start whittling away at. But then came a new cloud onslaught. It was horrible. It just wasn't possible to slew 2 or 3 degrees from a main star to find an object anymore. I had to wait for one lucky, bright star to peek through a cloud, sight on it right away, and then slew in North-South/East-West treks of up to 8 to 12 degrees, counting field widths along the way: 1.4deg...2.8deg...4.2deg...5.6deg...7deg...8.6deg...and so on. And on parts of those journeys, I didn't have even hints of stars to mark the progress of the view--only mottled puffs of cloud mass. M55 was the most painful, but biggest success that morning. It was sunk deep into some sort of standing wave cloud that wouldn't go away, but that thinned enough at odd moments to give some hope. I latched onto zeta-Saggitari and slewed 1° south and then 7.5° east across a mottled field of cloud. Then I turned the tracking motor on and waited. I was lamenting my plight to John, so he Go-to'd his way over to M55 and waited with me. As I was perusing my charts and looking for other cloud holes that might be promising, I heard John call out that he was starting to see stars in the eyepiece. I ran over to my eyepiece and gazed with anticipation. I had been very careful to slew what I thought was 7.5deg east across the clouds. But what if I had only gone 6deg or maybe 8.5deg? Gradually the field cleared, and there, resting in the middle, was the wide, soft, circular glow of M55! It lasted a mere 5 seconds before fogging back up, but I had it! We exchanged congratulations, and moved on to the last objects we could before the sky got bright. In all, I found 100 out 110 objects over the course of a very busy night. The ones I missed were M74, M33, M31, M32, M110, M76, M75, M72, M73, and M30. The highest count that night was 108. Don Machholz nabbed 102 (from memory, I believe!). Be sure to check out a report on the event by Andrew Cooper at Silicon Owl (click the 2006 Messier Marathon link under the Star Parties heading). I can see where using Go To technology really would help on a night like this, but I'm pretty excited that I was able to duke it out with the clouds and star hop an even 100. Here's to next year, and what a blast it would be to have clear skies. End. Posted by Jeremy at March 27, 2006 12:41 AM