Please email me your Messier Marathon 2002 results!
Please email me any scheduled Messier Marathon 2002 Events!
  • 2002 Messier Marathon Results

    Messier Marathon 2002

    The year 2002 (the second year of the new millennium) will offer a good opportunity for hunting down all 110 Messier objects, as New Moon occurs on March 14 (weekend March 16-17, 2002). A secondary chance will be on April 6-7 or April 13-14, 2002.

    This year, there will be a considerably good chance to combine the Messier marathon with an all-planet marathon, i.e. you can observe all solar-system planets during this night, though Neptune and Venus might be difficult. Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we list them below, based on the JPL List of Currently Visible Comets (also note Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

    Comet		   	      RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag    RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
    			  	  March 17, 2002            April 11, 2002
    
    C/2002 F1 (Utsunomiya) 00 08.2 +28 29 6.1 C/2000 SV74 (LINEAR) 23 48.32 +60 34.5 12.9 00 22.94 +66 24.7 13.3 C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) 01 26.88 +16 58.8 3.3 23 25.60 +57 20.7 3.8 19P/Borelly 12 06.57 +53 09.6 14.1 11 37.12 +49 27.7 16.0 7P/Pons-Winnecke 17 44.97 +02 27.9 12.5 19 09.93 -00 45.9 11.5 C/2002 E2 (Snyder-Murakami) 19 19.12 +04 42.2 10.0 19 22.19 +34 33.4 10.3 C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) 19 20.49 -09 50.0 7.4 19 01.95 +09 57.9 8.6 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 20 42.90 -20 04.0 15.7 21 00.09 -18 43.0 15.6 (has outbursts) C/2001 OG108 (LONEOS) 21 38.74 +52 20.8 10.1 07 27 +85 29.2 9.5
    Note that C/2001 OG108 (LONEOS) passes close to the North Celestial Pole around the April Marathon date.

    The list is RA ordered and thus in the sequence the comets might be observed from evening through midnight to morning. Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date.

    This year 2002, two events may have occurred just in time for enriching the marathon: On January 29, 2002, Supernova 2002ap was discovered in M74; this will probably be still bright on the MM 2002 occasion, though difficult as this galaxy will be a difficult evening challenge anyway. Moreover, comet C/2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) was discovered in Cetus at mag 9; it is to brighten to naked-eye visibility in March! But unfortunately, this comet will be close to the sun that month; perhaps better visible on the second marathon occasion in April.

    Also, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS.

    Messier Marathon Events 2002

    At this time, the following Messier Marathon 2002 Events have been announced: Please email me any scheduled events for announce here.

    If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2002 or earlier, if not already done so, please email me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!


  • 2002 Messier Marathon Results | < 2003 | 2001 >
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    Last Modification: April 9, 2002