Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 05:22:01 -0500 From: Dave Mitsky Subject: Messier Marathon 2001 The Messier Marathon Jinx or the ShortTube 80 Saves the Night It seems that almost every time I conduct a Messier Marathon something unpleasant or unfortunate occurs. It's almost enough for me to become superstitious about marathoning and I am far from being a superstitious man. Anyway I got a bit of a late start on Friday night partly because a fellow ASH member who was going to join me later in the night told me there was inclement weather on its way. (Due to a misunderstanding he and another ASH member went to another site instead.) Dark clouds did cover the sky for a while in the late afternoon but then it began to clear. However, I lost valuable time while waiting to see what was happening weatherwise. As I drove to a recently secured dark site in a state forest tract an hour north of Harrisburg the sun was setting in a perfectly clear sky and Venus blazed near the western horizon. As I was getting close to my destination I missed a turn (it was now growing dark) and stopped for coffee and directions thus losing more precious time. When I finally arrived at the site, in the middle of nowhere, there was a car that I didn't recognize near the unlocked gate. I rechecked the directions and found that there was still a bit farther to travel. At first I thought that it may have been someone who had also come to observe but apparently the occupants were there to either to park or party or both. At any rate once I unlocked the second gate I had no problems with unwanted visitors. I hurriedly set up the telescope I was going to use for the marathon and then suffered a near calamity due to a mental lapse. Without going into specifics I was unable to use that telescope for the marathon. (The accident was mercifully not as bad as it could have been.) However, I also had my trusty Orion ShortTube 80 (and a pair of Celestron 20x80 binoculars and guider which I never once used at it turned out) with me so after a short period of cursing (just kidding) I began hunting down Messier objects. Oculars utilized were a 19mm Tele Vue Panoptic (21x) and an 8mm Tele Vue Radian (50x). By the time the ST80 was up and running (01:25 UT) I had missed at least 6 of the early (fall) objects including the easy trio of M31, M32, and M110 but I persevered and began running up a respectable tally as I ran through the winter open clusters and nebulae. Surprisingly I just could not log M1 or M76 (I had seen both through the ShortTube 80 before) and M79 was below the treeline by the time I started observing. The site, a large clearing that had good horizons and which was fairly dark to the east and west and especially to the north, unfortunately had a considerable light dome in the south thanks to Harrisburg. Consequently it was mighty tough to see galaxies in Leo and Virgo as they neared the meridian, not to mention the neck strain involved in trying to look through the ShortTube's 6x30 (or whatever it's stopped down to) finder. (Having a unity power reflex sight on the scope would have helped tremendously.) I did pick up M65 and M66 through the southern sky glow but M95, M96, and M105 proved uncooperative. Since I had successfully logged all the Virgo Cluster galaxies during past marathons I decided not to bother with any of them this time. It was rather windy in the early part of the night but it grew calm as time went by. Of course, the transparency grew a bit worse as the wind died. I didn't have a problems with dew but I could tell the humidity had increased. Nevertheless all the stars of the Little Dipper were visible with direct vision including the 5.4 magnitude star off of the bowl. The seeing was rather good. I continued to log targets of opportunity as they rose above the horizon since following the order of any one of the several MM lists I had with me was too hard on my back. Having to kneel or otherwise contort oneself to look through a finderscope takes its toll during an all-nighter. I was happy to be able to glimpse M68 and M83, which were by far the most difficult objects of the night. The temperature dropped to approximately 30 degrees Fahrenheit but thanks to my many layers of winter clothing I didn't suffer from the cold except for my feet. Insulated boots, two pairs of cold weather socks, chemical heat packs in the boots, and standing on a blanket were not enough to keep my toes warm. I had to hop in my Saturn SC2 several times and run the heater during the course of the long night. Eventually dawn made its unwelcome appearance and by 10:20 UT only first magnitude stars and Mars were still visible. M9 proved to be my final Messier object at 09:59 UT. I logged a total of 60, a bit more than a half Marathon. Not one of my better efforts but not bad considering the circumstances. I also viewed Jupiter, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, Melotte 111, Collinder 399, Mars, a number of binary stars (I couldn't split Antares however), and saw several satellites through the eyepiece. At 09:52 UT two satellites crossed the field of view in opposite directions (in the vicinity of M19) while I was cruising Ophiuchus. So I spent over 8 hours in the cold, hunched over a tiny refractor, with toes afreezing, and all just to see a bunch of mostly faint fuzzies. Such is the sublime madness of the Messier Marathon. Dave Mitsky Harrisburg, PA