S*T*A*R Astronomy - Messier Marathon

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S*T*A*R Messier Marathon - Friday March 19: S*T*A*R held a Messier Marathon star party on Saturday March 20 at Coyle Field. For those unfamiliar with the term, a ``messier marathon'' is an all night observing session, where the goal is to be able to spot all the messier objects. There are only a few days in March when all the objects can be seen in one night.

Here are some notes, copied from the Bulletin Board, describing the March 20 Messier Marathon.

David Segelstein posted March 20, 1999 04:25

Clouds held off until after midnight!

GregC, MikeL, AndyZ, son of AndyZ, CharlesK, SteveW, and DavidS brought a total of 45.5" of aperture out to Coyle for a MM. Steve claimed 71, Mike got a truly verified 55 (exactly half), Andy got some and got more used to finding faint fuzzies, son of Andy got some sleep, Charles got frustrated without his AP there, Greg got some astronomica obscura, and David got some exposures (quality unknown as yet).

By the time the clouds arrived, Mike was just pointing his scope and finding galaxies "right where they're supposed to be" amazingly. This guy's gonna be a galaxy man, I can tell. Stephan's Quintet is not far off.

It was a fine half night, and if the clouds had held off (as that damn weatherman promised), I'm sure there would have been two completed marathons (and more completed exposures). But as it was, all went home happy.

And at after 4AM, the clouds are now starting to clear out. Oh well, it would have gotten light soon anyway.

Good night.

Steve Walters posted March 20, 1999 11:48

All,

Well, it was a good night, just as David says, until the clouds rolled in. I'm starting to think that David doesn't sleep. I left Coyle at 1 am, arrived home at 2 am. Here David is posting messages at 7:30 am? And telling us it was clear at 4 am? Does this guy sleep? Me thinks not....

Anyway, 71 will have to be my best effort for this year. Last year was better (101 of 110) but it was still a really fun time.

I'm off to Australia now for a week and then off to Greece for a second week. I am taking some binocs, a red light and a southern hemisphere star chart so this won't be a total loss. Some years ago, I took a barndoor to Melbourne AU and took some nice shots. But not this trip, too much work to do.

By the time I get back and re-synchronized, it'll be last quarter, so more observing will be in order. I hope I can have my PC problems licked and get the CCD out to Coyle/Colliers.

Good luck tonight! I'll be somewhere over the Pacific dreaming of clear skies!

By the way, MikeL is to be commended on finding all the galaxies in Virgo on his first Marathon! He did it all by starhopping and this is no small feat.

Great job, Mike!

Steve...

Michael Lindner posted March 20, 1999 13:28

Wooooo BABY! That was SOOOOOME FUN!

My final count (by light of day, looking at my notes) is 58 objects, although I must admit I can't swear to seeing M33 positively (I THINK I could see some difference in brightness against the sky glow, and the field star positions looked right, so after consulting with David I gave myself credit for it).

I got there later than I intended, and started observing with my el-cheapo binoculars (10x50 Bushnell) while the scop ecooled down. I was apparently the first person to find M31 this way, although I couldn't find it in my scope until David gave me a hand. Once I knew where it was I could find it again and again (and DID, as it was the only thing in that part of the sky I could identify to use to try to find other objects).

Skipped a bunch of the early objects, ad the sky was too bright, and they were setting. If I had been TRULY smart, I would have charted saturn, venus and the moon accurately, and thus been able to use them to "star hop". I worked my way through the Pennington book (the one I brought to the meeting), and Greg leant me his Machholz (?) book, but I was more used to the Pennington book, having read through it a few times.

Anyway, all went well, and I was having INCREDIBLE luck just pointing the scope with the "red dot" finder and having the objects appear right there without further searching. Then I got to Coma Berenices, and spent a backbreaking 3/4 hour finding nothing! Skipped the Coma objects, figuring to come back later. Just made it through the Virgo cluster (13 galaxies, no waiting ) when the clouds rolled on in.

The highlights were (according to my mostly illegible notes):

M42/43 - Wow! Never seen this much detail from any other site! Many swirls and streamers visible.

M78 - Could also make out NGC2064, 2067, and 2071 in same field.

M37 - Beautifully defined. Popped in 2x barlow and it seemed I could make out every individual star! Almost 3-D looking!

M65/66 - Also saw NGC3628 in same field. greg tells me it is mag 9.5.

M51 - WOW!! Popped in 2x barlow and could easily see the spirals. Lots of detail visible, even in companion NGC5195!

M49 - Also saw a 2nd dim galaxy which, from its position as I marked it in my notes, would be NGC 4469, although that's mag 12 galaxy, so perhaps I was mistaken. Is it possible?

To anyone who's never tried it, this messier marathon stuff is FUN! Try it next year!

Penny posted March 20, 1999 16:25

Neat Mike! Nice notes too.. thanks for sharing with us.

The best thing about a Messier is it forces you to hunt and hunt relatively in an efficient order, and it just shows what can be done when you are truly organized with a plan of action.

FWIW, I used Robert Garfinkle's Messier Marathon guideline in his "Star Hopping" book. He uses starhopping techniques as he does in the rest of the book to find the objects, and he does hop from object to object, depending.

For the second year in a row, I could NOT find Andromeda, not hide nor hair, despite the most extensive looking. I dunno if it's the conditions here or the sunset, but it was nowhere to be found. I tried everything.

Penny

Andy Zangle posted March 20, 1999 18:46

I got about 20 objects and found some "faint fuzzies" for the first time. Son of AndyZ (Drew)spent the time practicing with the ETX to point where he wanted it before sleeping. He found 2 or three objects and had a god time. Today, Drew never stopped talking about the night especially the helicopter that kept getting closer with each repetition!

David Segelstein posted March 20, 1999 21:15

Oh, yeah, there was that helicopter. It kicked up some dust, but was far enough away (on the other runway) that it didn't bother us. I don't think he saw us (we weren't well lit). We were all happy he didn't drop any pallets on us, since that was what we heard the air force used Coyle Field for occasionally. Greg reassured us that if they had intended to do that, the place would have been overrun with MPs & our stuff would have been confiscated. No problem.

Also, I just want to mention that I find it really terrific watching people get involved, and then grow into good observers (people who can really go out there with a plan and find stuff they've never seen before). Andy did really well. And I was really impressed that Mike was able to find every Messier object in the Virgo mess. Even Drew was learning the constellations and watching satellites. It was cool. One other fun thing was watching Greg. Last year I remember him spending about a half hour looking for and then finally finding M101. He asked me whether he should subject himself to that torture again, cause he sort of wanted to see it from Coyle. I said he should do it. He pointed his scope, and found it immediately.

Great night. I even got a couple of mediocre pictures, which I'll post when I've been able to do enough image processing to make them look presentable. Suffice it to say that I am still learning this stuff. Photography is hard. But astronomy is fun!

- David

Greg Cantrell posted March 21, 1999 08:36

Had a really great night Friday. I didn't participate in the Marathon, but had an excellent time just being out under the stars with a group of friends. Between all the oohs and aahs coming from Mike and David dancing with joy over finally being able to do some photography (with his Terminators on, no less), well, it was a blast.

We were first treated to a stunning view of the Moon, Venus, and Saturn, all grouped together in the western sky. As darkness fell, the sky was so clear that I spent a good deal of time just standing there, admiring the view.

When I got down to some observing, I decided to work my way through part of the "overlooked objects" book that I borrowed from Dan. (should have been there, Dan, you would have been proud!).

My observing list included: ngc 2281 - broken heart cluster ngc 4656 - fish hook galaxy ngc 2392 - eskimo nebula ngc 2841 - a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major ngc 2420 - a small open cluster near the eskimo nebular (recommend this one...nice little cluster) ngc 2141, ngc 2169, and ngc 2194 - open clusters in Orion's club

And of course, I spent some time with the Messier's

M 3, 51, 63, 94, 106 in Canes Venatici M 81 & 82 and M 101 in Ursa Major (found M 101 on my first attempt!) M 95, 96, and 105 in Leo M 53 and 64 in Coma Berenices (caught a glimpse of the black eye!) M 104 in Virgo (dust lane visible)

Finally, I had taken the obligatory look at M 13, and was search for ngc 6207 (a small galaxy found near the cluster), when the sky went blank in my eyepiece. The clouds had arrived.

David, Mike, and I tried to wait them out, but finally packed it in around 2:00 am.

Great night...need more of these!

Greg

David Segelstein posted March 22, 1999 12:04

These are somewhat disappointing to me, but you're all friends, right? Friday night I attempted to photograph the Cone Nebula (and Christmas Tree Cluster), and M65, M66, and NGC3628.

I won't bore you with details of what I forgot to do, but, hey, I hadn't been out in 3 months! This stuff is complicated.

Anyway, the night and the exposure of M65-66-NGC3628 were cut short by clouds. However, I thought it would be interesting for those who attempted and succeeded in seeing NGC3628 in the same field as M65 & M66, to see what it looks like on film.

- David