Messier Marathoners
Locate 104 Objects!

	Steve Thomas and a team of John Barra and Tim Lester each were able to
locate 104 of the 110 Messier objects during the one-night Peoria Astronomical
Society Messier Marathon on the evening of March 20 and morning of March
21.  Despite gloomy weather forecasts from as early as late that morning, the
observers were treated to nearly perfect conditions. Thomas used his 10-inch
Coulter Odyssey Dobsonian to accomplish the feat, while the Barra-Lester team
used an 8-inch version of the same telescope.  Meanwhile Brandt Bechtold showed
several of his family the use of the 14-inch Celestron in the small dome during
an abbreviated marathon session.  Despite arriving an hour after the normal
starting time and running the telescope for only a little over two hours,
Bechtold was able to use the telescope's computer to locate 63 Messier objects.

	Calene Fleming did not participate in the marathon, but used her Orion
binoculars with her new binocular mount for several hours, long enough to
complete the last of the Messier Binocular Club list.  In doing so she earned
the Astronomical League certificate for that category.  Only a couple of other
people came out during parts of the evening to observe.  The overall turnout
was disappointing despite the ideal weather.

 	The session began with absolutely clear skies in all directions and a
temperature of 50 degrees.  The first tough object,. M77 in Cetus, was located
at 7:15. The skies remained clear and the temperature mild until just after
midnight.  A cold breeze and several cloud formations covering a third of the
sky in the south then caused the observers to take several long breaks over the
next few hours.  Fortunately, the clouds came during the natural breaks in the
marathon while everyone had to wait for more objects to rise.   Around 2:30, a
northerly wind cleared the sky of the clouds and then died down to allow for
the last several hour-long push.

 	A few minutes before five, each team had observed the same 103
objects.  Thomas was then able to observe M55 while Barra and Lester were able
to see M75.  By then it was clear that no one would be able to locate another
object because of dawn.  Beside not being able to view the last object of the
other, both could not view M72, M73, M15, M2 and M30.  The last  can never be
observed during a marathon at this latitude.
 
	Below is a table of the hourly observations of each team. From the list
it is easy to tell the period when the clouds interfered with the viewing.

Hour		Thomas	        Barra/
				Lester

7-8		  16		   8
8-9		  23		  20
9-10		  11		  15
10-11		  11		  13
11-12		   9		   8
12-1		   2		   6
1-2		   2		   1
2-3		   8		   7
3-4	 	  18		  22
4-5		   4		   3
5+                 0               1   

Total	       	 104	         104

	The three marathoners agree that 105 is probably the maximum number of
Messier  objects viewable during a marathon at Jubilee.  While theoretically
109 should be observable, the barn, house and trees in the east-to-south
directions make that impossible here.  The telescopes had to be moved several
times during the last hour just to be able to observe the last four objects in
openings between those obstructions.  

 	The trio agreed that they would have to find a dark site southeast of
Peoria with a clear horizon in all directions to locate the last four
observable objects.  However, all might want to wait more than a year to try
that.   As if the tiring 11-hour, all night marathon was not enough, they had
to wait nearly another half-hour at the Jubilee truck stop for it to open
before they could have their victory breakfast.--John Barra