Date: Wed, Mar 28, 2012
From: Tom Borger
Subject: messier marathon in The Netherlands

Dear Hartmut,
 
Last friday march 23th, we did a Messier Marathon at the annual Starparty 
“achterhoekweekend” in Laren, The Netherlands.
This is a event at a camping site where approx. 25 amateur astronomers 
gathered. Most of them visual observers. 
 
Enthousiasted by two friends (Steven Lantinga and Roel Weijenberg), I 
joined in doing a marathon this evening.
Although at our latitude of 52° N, it is almost impossible to view all 110 
in one night, a number of more than 90 could be possible, according to the 
experienced belgian observer Tom Corstjens.
 
So we tried and because I am used to make sketches of my observations, I 
setteled to make small sketches of each succesful observation.
The conditions this evening were not optimal: a haze made observing low 
down the horizon difficult.
 
I used a 6” and 16” dobsonian telescopes, the smaller one was used to 
travel to a place at the site with unobscured view to the horizon.  
The friend used a 12” telescope. 
 
We succeeded in reaching a total of 93 (me) and 94 messiers! A number 
that made us feel proud, given the circumstances and duration.
The same number of sketches was reached too, something i have never done 
before and was very satisfactory.
 
In the following link, the sketches can be seen:
http://www.astroforum.nl/showthread.php/139448-Messier-schetsmarathon-23-maart-2012
It is in dutch, but the sketches tell the story.
 
In the evening we missed M74 and M33, although the latter could have 
been possible with a better timing.
Dawn came to early! We missed: M23, M24, M28, M30, M72 en M73 and M2. 
M6, M7, M55, M75, M54, M70 and M69 were too low. And M61 was forgotten.
 
Greetings,
Tom Borger
Lochem, The Netherlands