From: Rushil Y. Kulkarni
Date: May 9, 2026, 1:58 PM
Subject: Messier Marathon 2026 report

Hello Messier 102,
I've been told by a friend of mine that I can give u my report & that you'll 
post it on your website thus, I'm giving u mine. I hope you'll post it 
despite the late submission. 57 objects seen. My name is Rushil Kulkarni 
from Pune which is in Maharashtra, India. I did the Marathon a few km south 
of Mulshi at Camp Hideout.

Messier Marathon (14-15).03.2026-
Site - Camp Hideout (B4)
Equipment - 10"GSO dob, 8-21mm Celestron zoom, 40mm Celestron Omni,
  10x50 Olympus, 32mm GSO, 8" Sky-watcher dob, 30mm GSO Superview
S - 4/5, T - 5/5

Venus - Great at 8mm w/ the zoom
M41 - Stars looked great. Ez find in the bino.s
M77 - Very faint & small, star-like centre
M74 - Very faint fuzz
M34 - Clearly visible. No time for bino.s
M45 - Absolute cinema
M78 - Pretty faint but the dust lane pops out kinda
M79 - Nice experience to find, Nice fuzz between 2 stars, need to sketch
M42 & 43 - Nice bino. view, Very gud telescope view, Saw the dark cone & surrounding fuzz & darkness
Hyades - Got a bino.view, Need to sketch
Alpha Persei - Bino.view, Nice
M35 - Very good telescope view, bino. view, need to sketch though it may be hard
M37 - small cluster
M36 - Larger than 37, pretty good
M38 - Like 37
M47 - Great, needs a sketch, nice 3 star pattern in the mid, got a ez bino.view M46 - Dimmer than M47
Christmas tree Cluster - Good + got some nebulosity around the Cone w/ Averted, Sketch req.ed
M50 - Nice OC, sketch req.
M93 - Nice, Lot of stars
M48 - Pretty big, lots of stars, faint in bino.s, weird way to find
M96 - Faint, diffuse glow of the nucleus
M105 - Faint fuzz, noice
M81 - Reminds of 79, clear fuzzy nucleus
M82 - Very faint, line-like fuzz
M65 - Small fuzz in FOV w/ averted
M66 - Nice fuzzy thick line in averted, easier than 82
M104 - Saw both bright parts seperated by the dust lane using averted on oppo.s sides of view
M67 - Nice OC, like 46 but brighter
M40 - It's 2 stars & an H-I cloud, WHAT'S EXPECTED
M97 - Very smol & dim
M87 - Like M81 but dimmer
M89 - dim & fuzzy
M90 - same as 89
Saw 3 random galaxies in the region
M51 - Very dim blob w/ outgrowth, hardest obj. of the whole Marathon
M101 - Very faint blob
Omega Cen - Nice blob, pops out decently in bino.s, no stars resolved
M4 - dim & fuzzy, few stars resolved
M13 - Great!, Omega Cen but smaller, very dim in bino.s
M5 - dimmer than M13
M53 - like M5 M64 - Nice view, Dust lane clearly visible as a dec. in brightness
M3 - Great, slightly dimmer than M13, no reference stars
M57 - Great as always, didn't see the central dim part
M6, 7, 8, 24 - Speed run in bio.s in abt 20 seconds
M92 - Like M3
M56 - Pretty faint glob
M12 - nice glob
M8 - Great cluster in mid. not much nebulosity this time
M22 - Nice sploch, dim in bino.s
M69 - dim, nice glob
M17 - Nice swan shape, head was hardly visible, nice body
M16 - nice triangle w/ nebulosity in mid.
M20 - Next to no nebula
M24 - Similar to M8 in bino.s
Moon - atmospheric wobble visible

57 OUT OF 110 OBJECTS SEEN!!!!

Thank you,
Rushil Y. Kulkarni