Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2009 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2009 or earlier)
  • 2009 Messier Marathon Results

    Messier Marathon 2009

    In the year 2009, New Moon occurs on March 26.7 UT, thus providing a primary opportunity weekend for the Messier Marathon on March 28/29, 2009, and a secondary one the week before, on March 21/22. Both the primary and the secondary date offer a good chance to achieve a full score of 110 objects from suitable latitudes and locations.

    For the 2009 Messier Marathon, the years for a simultaneous all-planet marathon will be definitely over, with Uranus in conjunction with the Sun (i.e., behind the Sun) on March 13. It will not become available during Messier Marathon time during the next few years, and is supposed to be possible again earliest in about 2018. By then, Neptune will have become impossible, and continue to stay so for the years until the 2040s; it has already becoming difficult in 2009 (conjunction was on February 12) but may perhaps be spotted deep near horizon in the morning. Also, this year Mercury will be impossible at it will be in superior conjunction on March 31. Venus will come into inferior conjunction on March 27, but as it will be about 8deg North of the Sun and due to its brightness, it may perhaps even be spotted twice for Northern hemisphere observers, both shortly after sunset in the West, and shortly before sunrise in the East.

    Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., IAU's Observable Comets page, Skyhound's Comet Chasing page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

    Comet                       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag    RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                                    March 25, 2009            March 30, 2009
    
    67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 03:08.70 +20:40.4 13.3 03:28.04 +22:11.3 13.4 C/2008 T2 (Cardinal) 04:37.57 +46:44.2 9.5 04:50.26 +44:11.4 9.4 85P/Boethin 05:19.10 +26:24.4 12.5 05:34.40 +26:25.0 12.8 C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring) 05:33.76 -30:44.3 11.9 05:38.52 -28:58.9 11.9 C/2006 OF2 (Broughton) 06:31.66 +37:02.9 12.9 06:37.09 +36:09.5 13.0 144P/Kushida 06:49.01 +17:14.2 12.7 07:03.40 +17:00.5 12.9 C/2007 N3 (Lulin) 06:56.90 +22:03.6 7.5 06:48.09 +22:13.6 7.9 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 07:40.05 +23:23.3 15.7 07:40.36 +23:17.7 15.7 Outbursts! c. 11m 116P/Wild 09:18.97 +19:47.7 12.6 09:18.85 +19:35.2 12.6 65P/Gunn 12:18.41 +13:20.8 14.1 12:14.52 +13:38.4 14.1 C/2006 Q1 (McNaught) 16:49.98 +24:00.1 13.5 16:50.42 +25:23.8 13.5 22P/Kopff 18:56.04 -18:36.3 9.9 19:10.10 -18:17.6 9.7 C/2008 A1 (McNaught) 21:43.68 +58:15.5 13.4 21:55.25 +60:12.1 13.5 C/2006 W3 (Christensen) 22:42.89 +34:01.8 13.2 22:44.99 +33:58.2 13.1 Very tough morning
    In addition, southern hemisphere observers may capture the following, at high southern declination, low in the evening:
    C/2007 G1 (LINEAR)          02:44.33 -64:46.5  12.7   03:01.69 -62:49.4  12.8
    
    For the record: Southerners with large instruments may still try to spot now-faint (mag 19.7) old friend C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp at RA 02:01.63, Dec -83:14.4!

    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.

    Supernova ! A rare event just in time for the Messier marathon occurs this year, as a supernova flashed up in a Messier galaxy: Supernova 2008in in the galaxy M61. Found at mag 14.9 in December 2008 and having passed a maximum of about 14.3 mag, it was at mag 15.5 in mid-February 2009, and could still be just fine for larger amateur telescopes at the time of Messier Marathon in late March.

    Messier Marathon Events 2009

    Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2009 Messier Marathon Events here. Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

    If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2009 or earlier, if not already done so, please send 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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    Christine Kronberg
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    Last Modification: April 1, 2009