Date: Mon, Mar 31, 2014
From: Gordon Pegue
Subject: Messier Marathon Report

Hartmut -
 
Herewith is my brief Messier Marathon 2014 report:
 
Members of The Albuquerque Astronomical Society (TAAS) had observing 
sessions scheduled for both Friday night, March 28th and Saturday night, 
March 29th.  Being gainfully employed, participating in the Friday night 
observing session was for me, out of the question, so all my preparations 
were for the Saturday event. The whole observing event for me was kind of 
weird, in a funny sort of way. I didn't think I was going to stay at GNTO 
(our club observatory - the General Nathan Twining Observatory) much past 
midnight as the early evening conditions sure didn't look promising - and 
I made it clear to some of 20 or so folks present that "... this is not a 
marathon night". So, by observing all 110 on a night where the conditions 
were, at times, so atrocious is simply amazing. But then, it doesn't say 
"observe all 110 in pristine conditions". Most of the objects in Ophiuchus 
and Sagittarius were just barely visible. M74 was by far the most difficult 
observation. I spent about 30 minutes trying to nail that galaxy and it 
finally revealed itself just when I thought I was going to miss it. What 
finally cinched it was using my tried-and-true wiggle trick - gently move 
the suspect back and forth across the field of view. The faint background 
stars were nice obvious pinpoints and when I wiggled the scope, that 
ever-so-faint blotch of the core stood out.  Again, since I really wasn't 
thinking "all-nighter", I didn't note the time when I bagged M74 but I'd 
guess it was shortly before 8pm local MDT. I do know what time it was when 
I bagged M30: 5:41am and observing it was a couple of orders of magnitude 
easier than M74. In between? Well, let's just say that the wind out of the 
south was a nearly constant companion, only laying down and calming around 
5am and that the seeing and transparency varied back and forth from 
acceptable to sorta-OK to just bloody awful. There were more than a few 
of the evening objects that required not-so-delicately hanging on to the 
scope (I went shroudless on my 20" f/5 Tectron to minimize the "sail" 
effect) as I went up the ladder to get to the eyepiece and when I took 
breaks, I had to remind myself to "safe" the telescope by pointing it 
downwind and laying down my ladder. Anyhow, in 23 years I've been 
attempting marathons, this is only the second time I've bagged all 110. 
To do so on a wacky-weather night where I hadn't really intended on 
attempting the whole list definitely makes it memorable. 

I should note that a couple of my observing friends - Steve Riegel and 
Jim Kaminsky - observed 109 Messiers during the Friday night event.
 
 
Gordon Pegue
The Albuquerque Astronomical Society