Originally published in the April NewsScopes of the Birmingham Astronomical Society of Birmingham, Alabama My First Messier Marathon! By Fred Rains Saturday night, March 12, 2005 proved to be one of the best viewing nights we have had this year in the Southeastern United States. After weeks of rain it finally cleared for a single weekend; and it so happened to be the optimum weekend in 2005 for a Messier Marathon. I had always wanted to attempt one of these, and this year, my 52nd, I was going to do it. I.m a member of the BAS, the Birmingham Astronomical Society, and we have a club site on Chandler Mountain approximately 50 miles northeast of the city. I arrived at the site around 5:30PM and there were already 15 people there. By the time the night was over, this number grew to around 25. It was a great turnout. I set up on one of the concrete pads on the western side of the site, said hello to a few folks, and at 6:40 I began. I started off with M74, a Mag 10.5 spiral galaxy a little over a degree East of Eta Pisc. This should not have been that tough an object for my scope. but, I never found it! In my shaky defense it was only 5 deg away from the moon ( albeit a not-quite-three-day-old moon) and it was only 15 or 20 degrees off the horizon. oh, well . my first one, and I couldn.t find it! I was crushed. I looked around to make sure no one was looking and shamelessly went to the next object: M77. M77 is about the same magnitude and slightly smaller than M74. It is located almost a degree NE of Delta Cet, slightly higher off the horizon than M74, but almost 15 degrees away from the moon. I found it easily! I went back and wasted more time looking for M74. Never did find it. After that things were easier. M33 in Triangulum was a huge bright patch with no detail. M31 and its companions were their usual showpieces. M76 - the Little Dumbbell is still one of my favorites and it didn.t let me down. Other notables were M97 - Owl Nebula, M57 - Ring, M27 - Dumbbell, M51 - Whirlpool, M42 - Orion, M44 - Beehive(clearly a naked eye object), M1 - Crab, M81/M82 - Bode/Cigar, M108 in Ursa Ma, and globular clusters M3, M13, and everything in Ophiuchus! Sometime along the way I got to the Virgo Cluster. Here, I got lost at least three times. For some reason I decided to start with M98 and M99, near 6 Com Ber. 24 Com Ber, 11 Com Ber, and 6 Com Ber form a nice little arc between Coma Berenices and Virgo and I was finishing up in Coma Berenices so that looked good to me. Now, all of the books and guides will tell you to begin on one side or the other, or even to begin in the middle with M86 and M84. Follow one of these methods and not mine. I have since tried the M86/M84 approach from my back yard and to me, it works the best. One more note about Virgo: Markarian's chain arcs around and to the NE of M84 and M86. This alone was worth the trip out that night. I can not see this from my backyard in town. I spent way too much time in Virgo and it was a little past three o.clock before I managed to make my way through. My next object was M104 - the Sombrero. This is located approximately 200 south of the Virgo Cluster and it is my all time favorite. There were two other staunch observers still left by that time and the combination of the clear sky and some vintage Pink Floyd was about as perfect as it gets. It was getting a little bright in the east by 4 o.clock and by 4:45 I called it quits with M86 in Sagittarius as my last find of the night. When it was all over I had seen 85 Messier Objects! I know its well short of the 110 (not 109, I side with the "NGC5866 is M102" camp), but it was my all time record and I had a ball. I could have focused more on viewing and less on chatting, but that.s not what we join a club for. I shared some great views in my scope and other.s. It was just about as perfect a night as we get. Other objects viewed were Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter. Jupiter came up around 7:30 and there was a GRS transition until a little after 9:00, but I never did make it out. It was too low on the horizon and the seeing was just a little soft. Another non-Messier object was Omega Centauri. Around 1:30 this was about as high in the sky as it gets at our latitude. For my money, this is the finest globular cluster that we can see in our hemisphere. Did I say I had a good time? What will I do different next time? Practice before hand! Virgo got me. I will also bind my loose leaf notes! Believe it or not, the wind only got them one time. I will also bring some hot coffee. Thanks Mac! I would not have made it except for that cup you let me have as you left! That Weight Watcher.s pastry was delicious too! Did I say I had a good time? Lets do this more often! We could have mini-marathons during the year. Every few weeks we could choose 10 or so for a particular night and compare views. We could also add some Caldwell and Herchell objects. My Equipment: I have a Celestron G9.25 on a CG-5 mount. Shortly after I purchased the scope, I replaced the aluminum legs with Big Al.s Oak legs (I just checked and, unfortunately, Al is now out of business). The oak legs along with the optional "spreader", a clever tensioning brace, made a barely usable tripod into a very stable one. Damping times are in the order of 2 seconds. The CG-5 has the dual axis motors and I like the manual setting circles. I have always been a visual observer and this set up is ideal.. I use a Celestron red dot finder and my eyepieces are the 1 ¼. Celestron Ultima 35mm and 12.5mm. I have a Kendrick.s Dew Removal system( happily, not needed this night!) I have a marine deep cycle battery for the Kendrick's. I use a 6. folding table to set my charts on. I have a couple of folding chairs. I have a second automotive battery along with a small 300watt inverter, multi-outlet extension cord, dimmer, and a desk lamp with a 15 watt red bulb. I also have a 30+ year-old pair of Jason 10X50 binoculars. Guides: - I used the Marathon Search Sequence by Don Machholz. He is the author of Messier Marathon Observer's Guide. - Also, The Ultimate Messier Object Log, from David Paul Green.s web site. This is excellent! - I also used Messier Objects, A Beginner.s Guide, by Machin and Wheatley. This is published by the Astronomical League. - My aging eyes, along with a large magnifying glass, also utilized SkyAtlas 2000.0, by Wil Tirion and Roger Sinnott. - Last and not least was my Palm Pilot m515 with Planetarium ver. 2.2.5 and Jovian ver. 2.6.4 Location: - BAS Chandler Mountain Observation Site, Lat. 33.9134, Long. -86.2759, elevation 1400 feet. Weather: - Temperature was in the upper 30.s or low 40.s. - Dew point was slightly below that all night. There was no dew at any time. - The wind was gusting 10 to 15mph at times. - Sky was Mag 5 - Seeing was soft, 6 out of 10, ( 8 out of 10 for the Southeast!) - Transparency was very good. Haze was very low on the horizon and I didn't see my first cloud until I was driving home(6am).