Date: Monday, March 6, 2017 From: Ashirwad Tillu First Messier Marathon Thanks indeed for your tips and thanks once again for very informative site. I had a full night session on 25th night, 26th morning at my village, Pandurli, off Ghoti Sinnar Road, near the city, Nishik, India. My close friend and experienced observer, Anurage Shevde joined me. Due thanks to him for sharing with me a material which was a very good pre-read for Messier Marathon. While I have been particularly passionate about Deep Sky Objects and keep observing them, it was really important to PLAN and PREPARE for my first marathon. I would like to acknowledge my wife, Mrs Mrudula, who ensured that we have food at right times while we are engrossed in the observations. Initial evening Observations:- Considering potential issues of observing evening objects from my place, we went in the open fields in the outskirts of village Devle (off Ghoti Sinnar Road near Nashik), with 6 in, F 4 instrument of Anurag. The idea was to cover evening objects namely M74, M52, M110, M31, M32, M33, M76, M34, M77. Even after carefully selecting this place, the contrast in the Westside sky and overall sky quality was not up to the mark. We could locate only M76 and M34. We spent lot of time to locate M74. Specifically we could not even locate Eta PSc. In the process we missed some other easy ones such as M31. Further Observations Later we moved to my place at village Pandurli, on Ghoti Sinnar Road. Barring the West and North-West sky, the rest of the sky quality is normally quite good. The overall sky condition was quite good with no clouds. The observations were on 18” F4.5 Dob. We interchanged 11mm, 32mm and 7-21 mm eyepieces during the course. The easy ones such as M42, M43, M45, M44 were covered in no time. By midnight, we practically covered around 30 objects. The Virgo cluster was overhead then. It proved a bit cumbersome to look at this region especially for faint galaxies. Hence we took up other regions and returned back to this region at around 3AM. It was wonderful tracing the objects in the Markarian’s chain carefully one after another. For Globular Clusters, we invariably started with wide field eyepiece and then switching over to 7-21 variable. It was amazing experience to view the located GC in 21mm first and then increasing the magnification slowly all the way with 7mm and resolve the cluster. Finally almost all the objects covered, and an anxious wait for M30. As it rose from Eastern sky, M30 was spotted at around 5:30AM. It was still dark, moon not interfering with it. Fuzzy blob was located to complete the last leg in our plan. By this time, M52 in Cassiopia was back again in the North-Eastern corner. The 18” came handy for its viewing. Thus, one evening object was claimed here, raising the final score to 104 objects. Finally the six objects (M74, M110, M31, M32, M33, M77) were missed. During the course, at appropriate junctures, we managed to see Jupiter and Saturn too. Saturn was amazing with good surface details and Cassini division clearly visible. We also viewed two comets namely 41P Tuttle Giacobini Kresak and C2015 V2 Johnson. So, now the long wait of one year for next Marathon, maybe with some better preparations. Warm regards Ashirwad Tillu Mumbai, India.