Date: Thu, 02 Apr 1998 11:57:34 -0400 From: Troy Johnstone To: spider Subject: Messier Marathon Results This was my first Messier Marathon as I only received my first scope in October, a Meade Starfinder 8 Dob. In fact, until my attempt, I had only found 40 Messier objects because of bad weather and not many opportunities to observe. Location: Lat 45 deg 54 min N Long 64 deg 22 min W Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada out on the flat marsh. Equipment: 8" Meade Dob telescope with a Telrad Mostly used my cheap 25mm MA eyepiece 7x50 binoculars on a tripod Sky Atlas 2000 NGCView charts. I printed off 110 charts from NGCView to minimize the time required looking through Sky Atlas 2000. The printed sheets were punched and placed in a binder in the observing order described at http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/marathon/marathon.html These charts were only for mag 7.2, next years charts will be for 9.5 mag. Time and Conditions: March 29th. Clouds finally started to clear around 9:00 pm, and I was all set and ready to start at 9:45, so I had already missed the first 6 objects. Light pollution and a slight haze that increased going down to the horizon also prevented me from seeing several objects near the horizon. Stayed at it until the sun rose. Last object was M22 at 5:04 am when I could barely make out the stars! Results: I was able to locate and view 69 of the Messier objects that night, 34 of which I had never seen before. I spent too much time finding the Virgo/Leo cluster, and therefore missed many other objects.