Date: Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 5:06 PM
From: Paolo Beradi
Subject: 2010 photographic Messier Marathon results

Dear Hartmut and Christine, 

14/15 March we run a special Messier Marathon. It wasn't a classic visual 
one, we decided to attempt a CCD photographic session to prove astronomical 
setup and, of course, our capability... 
 
So, during the long night,  we took pictures of 108 Messier object, missing 
M55 and the very difficult globular M30. Observation site is L'Aquila, near 
centre of Italy, at coordinate 42.3 degree north and 13.3 degree east. From 
this link you can view every object grouped in 3x3 photo board:
 
http://quasar.teoth.it/html/mm2010/mm2010_aq.htm
 
Every photo has label with local time (UT+1) of central exposure. Exposure 
time range from 1 minute (star cluster) to 6 minute (faint nebular object) 
with the exception of M78 nebula with 32 minutes (our dinner break!).
 
We used a little setup: 5" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and go-to equatorial 
wedge with a CCD camera. No color filter was used, only IR-cut, so targets 
can be better compared with visual observations. All images have same scale 
for better Messier size comparison.
 
At last object shot moment, 05:27 local time (in strong twilight glow), 
missed object M55 was 7 degrees above horizon, but hidden among a tree. 
Globular M30 was 3 degree below horizon...

Best regards and sorry for bad english!
 
Paolo Berardi, Giuseppe Di Carlo
L'Aquila
Italy