Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2004 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2004 or earlier)
  • 2004 Messier Marathon Results

    Messier Marathon 2004

    The year 2004 will offer a good opportunity to run the Messier Marathon on the weekend of March 20-21, 2004, with a reasonable chance to observe all 110 Messier objects; new moon happens to occur during this night, March 21.0.

    On this occasion, it will be possible to combine an all-planet marathon with the Messier event, although Neptune will be difficult, and Uranus not much easier. This is one of the last years for a long time that we can get all 110 Messier Objects AND all 9 planets in one night. Uranus will disappear in coming years for about 15 years, then Neptune will be behind the sun during Messier Marathon time until about 2045. By then Pluto will be in the twilight until about 2105, when it will be visible near M77.

    Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 may be visible; we list them below, based on the JPL List of Currently Visible Comets (also note IAU's Observable Comets page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

    Comet		   	      RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
    			  	  March 21, 2004
    
    29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 23:30.42 +02:28.9 15.7 (has outbursts) C/2003 T3 (Tabur) 23:42.34 +05:44.2 9.0 C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) 00:00.61 +10:17.0 5.1 C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) 00:18.82 -65:30.6 5.5 C/2001 HT50 (LINEAR-NEAT) 00:44.47 +11:00.9 13.7
    Note that all these comets are very close to the Sun and not well observable at Messier Marathon time this year, unless you are on the southern hemisphere where C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) can be observed both in the evening and the morning.

    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, Ikeya-Zhang and Utsunomiya in 2002), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date.

    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 2004

    Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2004 Messier Marathon Events here. The following events have been announced: Late announces: Please contact me any scheduled events for announce here.

    If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2004 or earlier, if not already done so, please contact me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!


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    Hartmut Frommert
    Christine Kronberg
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    Last Modification: December 19, 2004