Date: Tue, Mar 27, 2012 
From: Jonathan Reed
Subject: Messier Marathon 2012 Results

To Whom It May Concern,
 
My name is Jonathan Reed, and my friend Cole Cote and I attempted the 
Messier Marathon from the top of Johnson Mesa, just outside of Folsom, NM 
on March 23-24. I feel compelled to tell you our story because this was a 
very powerful and emotional experience for both of us.
 
Cole and I are in our second astronomy class together at Pikes Peak 
Community College in Colorado Springs, and this semester in particular we 
had grown very close to our professor, Dr. Robert Day. We would share 
conversations before and after classes, and he always had some great 
story about the people he knew in science who had taken part in incredible 
discoveries in the last 40 years. In short, he was our mentor and friend. 
Cole and I had been planning since the beginning of the semester to go to 
New Mexico and try to complete the Messier Marathon. We both purchased new 
telescopes, and we were always telling Dr. Day how excited we were for the 
big weekend to come. He kept telling us that it was a very exciting thing 
to attempt and that he greatly looked forward to hearing about our success 
when classes resumed after spring break. On Wednesday, March 21st as we 
were leaving class and thinking ahead to our great adventure coming up, 
Dr. Day caught us before we left class and made sure to say, 
"Happy hunting this weekend boys, I can't wait to hear how it went." 
Later that evening, Dr. Day collapsed while teaching another class. 
I found out the news that Dr. Day had died the following day, when one of 
my fellow students from another class informed me of the terrible incident. 
I let Cole know, and we both spend the rest of the day in a bit of shock. 
This has been such an incredibly deep loss to us, and we both decided that 
we couldn't cancel our plans for the trip, because even though Dr. Day was 
gone, he would have still expected us to attempt the marathon.
 
We prepared ourselves for the attempt, and on the night of March 23-24, 
Cole and I successfully hunted down all 110 of the Messier Catalog objects, 
in memory of our professor and friend Dr. Robert Day.
 
I have a simple request. If you choose to list our attempt on your results 
page, and put our names in your list of marathoners, please include 
Dr. Robert Day's name right along with ours. Even though he has passed, we 
did this for him, and we have dedicated this Messier Marathon to his memory 
and legacy, and it wouldn't be right for our names to appear without his. 
In addition to our observation results, I have also included the cover page 
for our star charts. Astronomy lost a genuinely passionate researcher and 
educator this past week, and I think that all marathoners should know 
about the inspiration of Dr. Day.
 
Thank You,
Jonathan Reed
 
P.S. A few notes on the Observation Log: I incorrectly wrote down the date 
as March 22-23, and my observation for M16 is the topmost writing in the 
space. We accidentally mixed up M16 and M17 at first, but then realized our 
error. Also, I wanted to thank you for providing the Observation Log form 
on your website as it proved to be an incredibly valuable resource.

• Observation Log

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]

Last Modification: March 30, 2012