Michael Slaven's Messier Marathon report for the night of 31 March-1 April,  
from 19:30 to 04:30. Michael also managed to view 40 of the 64 found objects 
with both binoculars and telescope.


Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 01:22:35 -0400
From: Michael Slaven
To: spider
Subject: messier marathon results

I did a  Messier Marathon (with friends Alexander Macia, Leah Macia, my
wife Kristina Olson, my brother Chip Slaven, and son Lee Slaven age 2,
as observers at various points).  The session was held at a little
(non) town called Cabins, West Virginia at 38 degrees, 57.68 N; 79
degrees 21.59' W.  Conditions were excellent, with vm 7.5 or fainter
stars easily visible at the zenith, and 7.0 stars at the edge of the
horizon.  (These are conservative estimates--it was astoundingly dark
sky--darker than I've ever seen in the Oregon desert, Yellowstone Park,
or northern Canada.  Maybe the weather was just exceptional, but it
seems to be a fabulous site).  Instrumentation was a Celestron 8", an
80mm F/11 refractor, a 4.5"  f/4 reflector, and 12 x 50 binoculars.  I
was the only amateur astronomer, and had only previously recorded seeing
40 Messier objects since I've kept track over the past six months.  I
located the objects with sky charts (no setting circles or GOTO) using
my friends and family as a means of confirming my observations.   I
managed 64 objects, but finally stopped as late-night winds reduced the
stability of the SCT with its long dew cap and eventually began to cut
through me like a knife.  I called it a night at 4:30, confident that
many more objects would have been found had I not been so blown about.
Some of the more interesting things about the session:  In the early
evening, I found the first difficult objects with no trouble at all.
M74 and M77 popped into view within a couple of minutes of looking,
thanks in part to the conveniently placed planet Mars, which I used as a
guide post while waiting for full astronomical twilight.  The surprising
thing is that M31 proved very difficult due to an eerie skyglow that I
assume was zodiacal light.  While I finally nailed it, its companions
were impossible to locate, as was M33, even though these were
frequently-visited objects for me a few weeks ago.  The Virgo cluster
objects came surprisingly easily, with the chief difficulty only being
verification of the object at hand (in fact this cost me an object, as I
was unwilling to simply say I was sure when I wasn't).  I was really
happy with my first attempt at a Messier marathon !  We plan to make it
a yearly event, and my goal next year is to exceed 100 if I solo again,
or get all of them with help!

Michael Slaven
Associate professor of history
California University of Pennsylvania
http://web.mountain.net/~mslaven/