Date: Wed, Mar 28, 2012 From: Derek Kuhl Subject: Messier marathon 2012 results Hello Hartmut I have some Messier Marathon results from Texas if you would like to include them: The Brazos Valley Astronomy Club (www.brazosvalleyastronomyclub.org) held its annual Messier Marathon March 23, 2012 at Mark Spearman's Regina Caelorum observatory in Wheelock Texas. We had 17 total attendees with six attempting some part of the marathon. Mark Spearman managed to image 109 objects in one night with a Takahashi TOA 130 missing out on M30 due to the high eastern horizon at this site. Derek Kuhl logged 106 objects without setting circles or goto with his orange tube Celestron 8 missing M74 because it was too dim, M32 and M110 while looking for M74 and M30 due to aforementioned horizon problem. Tim Cowden managed to log 59 objects before the dew caught up with him. Judy Culver and Joe Powell collaborated on her Vixen VMC200L to log 31 objects. Kevin Gassen logged 15 object with 10x50 his binoculars only. A more detailed writeup can be fund at http://brazosvalleyastronomyclub.org/Messier-Marathon.php Thanks for including us! Derek Kuhl