Contributed by: Doug Lucas Subject: We're in! (CloudyNights EAA team Messier Marathon experience) Date: Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 11:42 PM We’d like to attempt the first-ever CloudyNights EAA (Electronically-Assisted Astronomy) forum TEAM Messier Marathon experience this coming Friday. Here’s our announcement in the EAA forum at CloudyNights. --- Everyone is invited to an interactive a CloudyNights EAA Messier Marathon Team experience, beginning this coming Friday, March 19th, 5pm ET and continuing through Saturday morning, March 20th, 10am. (We're extending the hours on purpose to allow for hopefully anyone, anywhere in the world to take part for at least a while.) Learn more about Messier Marathons by using your favorite search engine to read about them on the web. This is a special version, adapted to EAA. So please understand - it's not just that we're taking snapshots of what we see. That's been done before. It's that we'll be live-streaming the whole thing and enjoying it online real-time with all our CloudyNights teammates, family, friends, and guests to enjoy together. To our knowledge, that kind of an international CloudyNights all night marathon experience has never been done before! This will be a Zoom-type meeting - very interactive. It'll be fun to get to know everyone. While doing so, we will be observing, trying to snare all 110 Messier objects in one night - together -- as a team. We'll use an online real-time spreadsheet to keep track of our results, checking off our "live observing" and checking off that we've uploaded at least one image of each object. Of course, multiple images are welcome - so we can feature ALL of them in the all-star video that sums up the night. We'll also use portions of the Zoom recording for the video as well. We'll make the video available for all - so we can all feature it on any of our social media or YouTube channels. The video will not be branded. This is not a fundraiser not is it a chance for any one person to build his/her own audience. This is a TEAM experience -- so we'll all be in it together. The public is welcome to sign up for the Zoom as well! No telescope required! Sign up for the Zoom meeting in advance and get your personal, private credential here: When: Mar 19, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqfu2hqzMoH9b--mvU21F840EciDnXeyPo After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please don't share your credentials with others or post them online. The online tracking spreadsheet can be seen by the public at: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=68ec037a11b34ff08e71e35230de9d02 Depending on how many sign up, we might also live-stream to a youtube channel simultaneously. The above Zoom room can only handle up to 500, so better sign up now to reserve your observing chair! Once you've signed up, you'll also be sent the credential for editing and contributing to the SmartSheet online, real-time, with the rest of the crew. The Smartsheet will be read-only to the public (those who don't sign up in advance). Questions or thoughts? Please find the thread under the EAA CloudyNights forum at: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/760699-cloudynights-messier-marathon-team-planning-for-friday-19th-of-march/ Let's make this a chance to get to know our CloudyNights community and work together, as we always do, for a common goal. Thanks and hope you can join us - for one hour or the whole experience, from North America or anywhere in the world! Doug (CloudyNights handle: EmeraldHills)