Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2023 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2023 or earlier)

The Messier Marathon community mourns the loss of Don Machholz (October 7, 1952 - August 9, 2022), co-inventor and record-breaking Messier Marathoner. Don Machholz commemorative site

Messier Marathon 2023

This year 2023, New Moon will occur on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. For the Messier Marathon, this date suggests a primary weekend on March 18/19, and a secondary one on the weekend of March 25/26 (see the Messier Marathon Dates). According to Tom Polakis' investigation, on the first occasion, attampting a full score of 110 could be possible between 7 deg and 33 deg Northern Latitude, while on the second occasion, it may Be possible between 12 deg and 37 deg North. In both cases, the orthern Limit comes from M30, the most difficult morning object, while the southrn limit is due to M52 an the primary date and due to M110 on the second one.

Messier Marathon Events 2023

Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2023 Messier Marathon Events here.

Dave Whittle is early scheduling a Messier Marathon for 2023 in the time between March 17 and 24, 2023 from Tenerife.
The North Central Kansas Astronomical Society (NCKAS) will attempt another Messier Marathon for 2023. They are shooting for March 18th, weather permitting, with March 25th as our backup date. They will again have a virtual cooperative effort with astronomers from across the states of Kansas, Colorado and Texas. They'll have their progress posted on their Messier Marathon site http://messier.nckas.org. They may even try a live stream of the event! -- Todd K. Tuttle, NCKAS
The Asociación Astronómica "M13" (Bahía de Cádiz) hope make this year the Messier Marathon on Saturday 18th March in "Cerro de los Mártires" (San Fernando - SPAIN) - Asociación Astronómica "M13" (Bahía de Cádiz)
Rescheduled! The 2023 All Arizona Messier Marathon will be hosted by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) and the East Valley Astronomy Club (EVAC) on March 25/26, 2023 (rescheduled from March 18/19), at a new location, the North Hovatter Observing Field. It is the Same exit on I-10 at Hovater Road, but turn NORTH (right if coming from Phoenix) and travel 3.5 miles to a large open area. Again, the new site is on the NORTH side of I-10. This will be the 29th in the row. - SAC and EVAC
Tal Givoly is planning to conduct his first Messier Marathon, probably on Thursday/Friday March 16/17, 2023. He intends to do it simultaneously with EAA and visual in another. Plan is to use two rigs with small EQ mounts, controlled by ASIAIR for this. Visually he plans to use an 8-inch Dobson. - Tal Givoly

Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2023 or earlier, if not already done so, pleae send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

Extracurricular Activities

While it is the goal of the Messier Marathon to observe as many Messier Objects in a night as possible, it is sometimes convenient and enjoyable to combine the Messier Marathon with some other observational activities, in case some time is left during the night session. In the following, we propose some options to select from:

Deepsky enthusiasts can look for additional clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. While you can certainly pick and observe whatever you like, we also provide a list of additional deepsky objects to select from (also available with data).

It is always delightful to add to the Messier Marathon the observation of as many of the planets as possible. This year, some of them will be very close to their conjunctions: Mercury, Saturn and Neptune will be impossible on both dates, while bright Venus, Jupiter, Mars and with some difficulty Uranus may all be spotted in the evening sky, and faint Pluto in the morning.

Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., Skyhound's Comet Chasing page, Seiichi Yoshida's Visual Comet lists for the northern and southern hemisphere, and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

Comet                        RA   (2000.0)    Dec mag   RA   (2000.0)    Dec mag
                               March 19, 2023             March 26, 2023

C/2020 V2 (ZTF)              02 00 01.6 +35 38 59 10.8  02 05 38.0 +33 43 11 10.8  El. 47/40
C/2021 Y1 (ATLAS)            03 40 34.5 -18 32 55 12.1  03 48 28.0 -19 21 29 12.1  El. 58/56
C/2022 E3 (ZTF)              04 44 48.4 -05 12 39 10.1  04 48 41.3 -06 38 46 10.6
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1   06 18 17.2 +28 05 11 15.7  06 19 59.7 +27 55 09 15.7  outbursts ~11m
C/2019 U5 (PanSTARRS)        12 19 10.9 -01 07 03 12.2  12 03 50.4 -01 24 14 12.2
364P/PanSTARRS 18            14 46 40.5 +28 27 00 13.6  15 42 51.1 +31 13 37 12.9
C/2019 T4 (ATLAS)            15 44 45.7 +10 27 18 15.0  15 44 29.3 +11 48 06 15.0
81P/Wild 2                   17 24 30.6 -19 03 33 11.8  17 33 29.2 -19 00 18 11.8
96P/Machholz 1               20 19 10.6 -07 51 25 15.1  20 20 10.1 -08 09 19 15.7  El. 53/60 -- remember Don Machholz!
C/2022 A2 (PanSTARRS)        23 21 29.1 +46 35 35 13.8  23 37 11.8 +45 03 20 13.9  El. 47/44

Observers in the southern hemispher may also turn to these three comets:

C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)        03 10 22.8 -46 53 40  6.7  03 29 16.9 -42 43 26  6.8  El. 63/62
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS)            09 07 41.0 -34 30 51 14.9  09 05 04.7 -34 05 49 15.0
C/2020 K1 (PanSTARRS)        19 53 49.4 -40 27 34 13.1  20 01 59.1 -42 29 50 13.0

Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996, Hale-Bopp in 1997, 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, SN 2012aw in M95, and SN 2014J in M82 in their years of appearance).

This year, of the "first" four minor planets, only bright (1) Ceres (all night) and (2) Pallas (evening) will be in considerable observing situation. (3) Juno will be faint and at only 37 and 34 deg elongation from the Sun on these occasions, while (4) Vesta will be practically impossible at only 20 and 16 deg, respectively. 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 19, 2023              March 26, 2023
 
(1) Ceres              12 29 53.9 +15 14 39  6.9   12 23 53.2 +15 47 14  6.9
(2) Pallas             06 49 26.2 -08 29 14  8.1   06 57 10.0 -06 01 36  8.2
(3) Juno               02 17 52.2 +04 51 02  9.7   02 33 06.6 +06 04 19  9.7  El. 37/34
(4) Vesta              01 10 49.7 +01 58 39  8.4   01 22 28.8 +03 14 25  8.4  El. 20/16

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

Please send me any results of your Messier Marathon for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

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Hartmut Frommert
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Last Modification: March 25, 2023