Date: Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 2:44 AM From: Tom Hoffelder Subject: Messier Marathon 2010 Wanted to report that Dick Parker and I completed a marathon last night here in Tolland, CT. His detailed report, which was submitted to ASGH, is included below. I was able to locate 105 of the objects, missing M74, 77, 79, 30 and 33. M79 probably would have been observable except for obstructing trees. (CT has way too many of them!) My first object viewed was the Orion Nebula at 20:15 EDT (nautical twilight ended 20:28), and the last was M110 at 04:52 (nautical twilight started 05:10). Mercury as a crescent provided an interesting prelude to the event, and I also observed Comets Wild 2 and McNaught. Dick ground and polished the doublet lenses in his 4.5 inch, and as with all his home built telescopes, it works perfectly. tom hoffelder ASGH = Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford STM = Springfield [VT] Telescope Makers RIG = Refractor Interest Group -- Frowarded message -- Date: Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 1:41 PM From: Dick Parker Messier Marathon 2010 On Sunday evening (April 11) through Monday morning (April 12) I did a Messier marathon at Heron Cove, Tollond, CT. and thought I would discuss the results. I accomplished this marathon with Tom Hoffelder. The telescopes used were 1) A 4.5 inch refractor (STM RIG project), 2) a 6 inch refractor, and 3) an 8 inch f/6 Newtonian. The refractors both were outfitted with home made achromat objectives. My primary telescope for the marathon was the 4.5 inch refractor primarily to see how it would perform. The 6 inch refractor had an objective recently completed by Carl Koplan during the 2010 ASGH Mirror Workshop season. Carl was not able to participate, but was able to stop by about mid evening to see how we were doing and look through his lens. The evening was fair, with no cumulus type clouds, but a cloud band to the South obscured our view for a couple hours. The sky held moisture until about 2:30 am which, in combination with local light pollution, muted the transparency that would be optimum for such an event. Starting at about 2:30, the moisture condensed out of the air in the form of frost, but the optics were sufficiently protected so as not to dew or frost over. At the conclusion of the evening, I had observed 94 Messier objects with the 4.5 inch refractor. Every object attempted was found. Non observed objects were either, not above the tree line (in the west at sunset), or I ran out of energy and time in the am (temperatures dropped to 29 degrees and there was frost forming on the OTA's and mounts). Without any question, the 4.5 inch refractor was an acceptable telescope for the marathon. In fact, you would have to have aperture larger than 8 inches to improve on the ability to find and see M objects. Some highlights. All the galaxies in the Leo/Virgo group were found with the 4.5 inch refractor. These galaxies are mag 10 - mag 11. Of note, near M85 is NGC4394 a mag 12.5 galaxy which was detectable in the 4.5 inch. Also of note, M46, an open cluster, had within it Planetary Nebula, NGC2438, which could be seen, We were both surprised at how much size, detail, and structure could be seen in M51, the Whirlpool galaxy, and how much of M81 was visible. As a general comment, most if not all, diffuse objects (galaxies in particular) were more apparent in the 4.5 inch refractor than the 8 inch Newtonian and about as apparent as seen in the 6 inch refractor. Yes, the objects were dimmer as you might expect, but the sky was darker and blacker also. Respectfully submitted Dick Parker