Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 01:10:47 -0500
From: BIG-G
Subject: 2002 Messier Marathon

Being a "newby" amateur astronomer, I tought that running a Messier 
Marathon would give me a good helpful boost in learning how to read star 
charts, star hopping and spotting objects. And I think it did, because 
I'm happy about my results. I prepared for a few months, reading, 
studying, and observing. I made my own personnalized star charts, (using 
"Sky Charts", a free astronomy software http://www.astrosurf.com/astropc)
with detailed views of what I would actually see trough my 115mm (4 1/2 
in.) Newtonian scope with the eyepieces that I have.

Unfortunately, the only cloudless night we had in weeks happened on the 
night of Saturday March 16th, when I had other obligations and wouldn't 
be free before at least 9:00 PM. I knew that that late start would hurt 
my results a lot, but I decided to do the best I could with the time I 
had, and that would at least show me if I'm learning well, and give me a 
base for future marathons.

Nobody from my Club (SAPM, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) was interested in 
doing the Marathon, so I did it alone. I was at my club's observing 
site, in Hemmingford, 70Km (40 miles) south of Montreal, at 9:15 and I 
was ready to start at 9:55. The seeing was really good, there was no 
wind, and the temperature was not too bad, with a low of -10C (+14F). 
But it was still cold enough that I couldn't stay out for more than 1 
1/2 to 2 hours at a time. That cost me a few objects too. And I spent 
too much time on the Virgo cluster.

At the time that I started, it was already too late for 
77-74-79-33-31-32 and 110. So I started with the easiest one, M42, 
logged at 9:59. I began the Virgo cluster at 2:00, I gave up on M88 and 
N91, and I finished that very difficult step at 3:00. The last object I 
looked at was M11, at 5:01. I had to stop then because the eastern sky 
was getting too bright. So my final score is 77 objects spotted, in 7 
hours. I'm happy with that. I believe that I could have done about 100 
if I had started earlier.

I really enjoyed the experience, and I would say that it was easier than 
expected, except for the Virgo Cluster.

____________________________
Gerard Gendron
Longueuil, Quebec
Canada