Date: Tuesday March 8, 2016
From: Dave Whittle
Subject: Messier Marathon attempt 2016

The weekend was spent in the Galloway dark sky park in Scotland UK at 
55 degrees north.

Friday 4th March started clear and all the first 66 objects had been 
seen including the virgo group before the clouds rolled in after midnight.

Saturday 5th March the evening started cloudy but did clear around 2am 
and I started of with M83 and continued with my observing list from the 
previous evening. 34 further objects seen but M2 not attemped due to the 
dawn. 9 objects would not rise at all this far north in March so quite 
happy with my 100 tally over the 2 nights compared to 93 objects in my 
first maraton last year proving it would be possible to achieve the 
maximum 101 from my location in a single night!

Telescope was a truss 12" F5 dobsonian of kriege and berry design with 
rigel and 7x50 monocular finders.

Both observing sessions were 100% clear when locating/viewing objects.

Roll on 2017.

Dave Whittle
Liverpool Astronomical Society
U.K.