Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2010 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2010 or earlier)

Messier Marathon 2010

In the year 2010, March New Moon occurs on March 15.9, providing a primary opportunity weekend for Messier Marathon on March 13/14 and a secondary one on March 20/21, 2010. Because of the considerably early date, on the primary weekend it will be difficult to achieve the full 110-object score from mid-northern latitudes because of the difficulty or impossibility to see M30, while during the secondary weekend this may easier be possible from suitable latitudes and locations.

As it is always delightful to add to the Messier Marathon the observation of as many of the planets as possible, it must be noted that for 2010, Mercury and Uranus (conjunction with the sun on March 17, almost at New Moon) will be impossible, while Jupiter will be a very difficult (conjunction on February 28) and Neptune an extremely difficult morning object (conjunction on February 14 and faint).

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 15, 2010            March 20, 2010

157P/Tritton                04:06.52 +22:40.2  12.1   04:25.39 +22:56.6  12.2  5deg E of M45
44P/Reinmuth                07:58.25 +18:04.2  10.4   07:57.54 +18:06.2  10.9
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1  09:21.57 +13:11.1  15.6   09:20.05 +13:15.8  15.6  Outbursts! c. 11m
81P/Wild                    14:10.16 -06:49.2   9.4   14:12.64 -06:38.4   9.3
C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring     15:22.21 +55:34.3  10.9   15:23.30 +57:07.0  11.0  near M102!
10P/Tempel 2                18:35.93 -13:33.8  12.7   18:48.70 -13:24.7  12.5
C/2009 K5 McNaught          19:12.87 +05:43.4  10.6   19:19.63 +10:32.9  10.3
65P/Gunn                    19:28,83 -25:10.0  13.0   19:37.87 -25:08.5  12.9  5deg N of M55
C/2006 W3 Christensen       20:17.16 -25:07.7  14.2   20:18.53 -25:44.3  14.2
C/2009 R1 McNaught          22:16.62 -09:27.3  13.8   22:22.93 -08:08.5  13.6  close to sun - elong 21 deg/24 deg
C/2009 O2 Catalina          22:26.44 +38:29.6   9.4   23:31.01 +43:07.4   9.1  difficult - elong 44 deg

For the record: Southerners with large instruments may still try to spot now-faint (mag 20.1) old friend C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp at RA 01:33.56, Dec -83:37.4!

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 occasionally, a supernova of brightness available to amateur telesopes may have flashed up be spottable in time (like SN 1998S in NGC 3877, SN 2002ap in M74, SN 2006X in M100 in their years of appearance).

Of the "first" four minor planets, (1) Ceres, (2) Pallas, and in particular, (4) Vesta (which had its opposition on February 17) will be easily observable, while (3) Juno will be more difficult. For those who want to try these objects, data for the two weekends in question are as follows:

Planet       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag   RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                 March 14, 2010           March 21, 2010


(1) Ceres    17:53:58 -29:59.0  8.8   18:00:49 -21:33.0  8.7
(2) Pallas   15:52:14 +11:52.6  8.9   15:53:59 +13:33.3  8.8
(3) Juno     02:42:46 +05:33.7  9.7   02:57:37 +06:46.4  9.7
(4) Vesta    09:56:51 +22:13.4  6.5   09:52:22 +22:33.2  6.6

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 2010

Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2010 Messier Marathon Events here.

The 2010 All Arizona Messier Marathon is scheduled for March 13/14, 2010. This event is sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 18th time), and will be held again at the site south of Arizona City. - A.J. Crayon & Rick Tejera
Also see SAC's 2010 All Messier Marathon announce.
The United Astronomy Clubs of New Jersey (UACNJ) will hod a Messier Marathon at UACNJ Observatory at Jenny Jump State Park, New Jersey, during the best night predicted in the five day weather forecast available for the Weekend of March 18-20, 2010. - Jim Norton (norton at optonline.net)
Two certificates are available from them: 1. for participating in the marathon, and 2. when they have viewed all 110 Messier Objects (not necessarily on the Messier Marathon Night).
Prof. Sorin Hotea (coordinator of AstroInfo website) and Astronomagazin shop organize another MM in 2010 in Romania. Romanian astronomers are called to run into the marathon between March 10th and April 15th. The participants can sign in a contest and win some prizes (a meteorite, an eyepiece, a wall sky map, a 6 month subscription for SMS news alert) if they reach the top positions of the ranking. Every participant at MM 2010 will receive a certificate to acknowledge their results. See the Romanian MM 2010 page.
The Kutch Astronomy Club is planning a Messier Marathon this year again. This event is to take place on March 13/14, from 7.40 pm to 6.00 am next morning. Place is Mirzapur Forest Nursery near Bhuj, in the Kutch District, Gujarat State, India. Registration is required (last date for registration: 13 March 2010). Equipment provided: One 8 inch Reflector Telescope, one 6 inch Reflector Telescope, one 25 X 100 Binocular. Light dinner and 2 time tea will be provided. For more info, see their web posting at http://kutchastronomy.blogspot.com/2010/03/messier-marathon-2010.html. - Narendra Gor
The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (SFAA) will hold a Messier Marathon on March 13/14, 2010 on Mount Tamalpias. The tradition of these events will probably continue that Charles Messier (actually, Kenneth Frank dressed as him) will show up for another time. See their announce! - Kenneth Frank

Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2010 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!

Messier Marathon Home < 2011 | 2009 >

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]

Last Modification: March 15, 2010