Date: 19 Mar 2015 15:10:40 +0100
From: Keith Turnecliff
Subject: Messier Marathon Spring 2015

Due to the predicted weather here in  Brittany I decided to do my 
Messier Marathon last night.
I appreciate I would probably not see all the Messier objects but I was 
aiming at a minimum of 105...
I had 7 A4 pages with around 240 objects to photograph including all 110 
Messier objects, comet Lovejoy, loads of NGC objects and one IC object.

I started at 2030hrs and managed to get my scope aligned almost perfectly.
However I had to battle against cold 20mph NE winds, with higher speed 
gusts and very cold conditions despite loads of clothing layers.
By 0030 I had completed 3 pages of the 7 and decided I needed to 
concentrate on the Messier Objects.
An hour later I had taken as many Messier objects as were in view at 
that time and calculated I could go and warm up and took a 2 hour break 
returning at 0330hrs.
I missed M7 in my calculations somehow...
I realigned and refocussed the scope and started to plough my way 
through the remaining Messier Objects.
At 0520 a cloud covered the area of the sky where my remaining images 
were congregated and therefore I was unable to photograph the last 10 
images or so and I concentrated to other objects in the sky, 
periodically returning to see if the Messier objects were in view.
Unfortunately they were not and by 0630hrs it was then too light to do 
any more imaging and I decided to call it a night.
I estimate I took about 95 Messier images during my very cold windy 
stint, plus quite a few NGC's, IC4182 and comet Lovejoy.

When I return to the UK, I shall be looking at my images, posting them 
on my wesite www.longitchastro.co.uk.

Keith Turnecliff