Subject: Messier Marathon Results.
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:31:03 -0600
From: David Stine
To: spider

The TUVA Astronomy Club in Council Hill, Oklahoma had a very successful
Messier Marathon this year the night and morning of March 20-21.  The
weather looked terrible all day on Saturday but by 6p.m. the skies had
cleared and we were ready to marathon.  We started out with viewing all
five naked eye planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter all in
a line from West to East. It was a interesting sight to be able to see
all of those planets at the same time.  Before we started observing we
had a nice pot luck supper for everyone, then we watched slides of one
of the Tulsa Astronomy Club members, Denny Mishler's trip to South
America to see Halley's Comet in 1986.  Then it was time to start.  It
was very windy but after the bad weather all day the skies were great.
I used only 15x70 binoculars and ended up with 47 objects.  The
defending champ Rod Gallagher ended up locating the most objects once
again finding 4 less than last year with 101.  Rod found the elusive
M74, which was a real treat for him.  Other results, Ken Black 49, Steve
Chapman 49-His all time marathon best, Denny Mishler 47 and myself 47,
and rookies Marci and Bob Boston - 11 (They are still just learning how
to find objects).  Denny and I used only binoculars. All the marathoners
were from the Astronomy Club of Tulsa. There were several others at the
event but they were mostly onlookers.  We were greeted with a beautiful
sunrise, which had a golden pillar that shot straight up from the sun
about 15-20 degrees.  It was a stunning sight and put the exclamation
point on the ending of this years marathon.  Everyone had a great time
and the hosts, Ron and Maura Wood were great. Everyone is looking
forward to next years marathon.

David Stine
Comet - 1