Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 14:37:13 -0600
From: Russell F. Pinizzotto
Organization: University of North Texas
To: spider
Subject: Messier Marathon

Hartmut:

I tried the Messier Marathon twice this year, during Spring Break.

The first attempt was from the University of North Texas Observatory
just north of Denton, TX, on 19-20 March 99.  I primarily used a
Celestron-14, but also had a Criterion RV-6, a Celestron C-90 and 7x50
binoculars.  I spent way too much time trying to find all of the objects
with the C14 and ended up with a total of 54 before sunrise.  This
convinced me that fork mounts are not very comfortable to use!  The
light pollution from Denton and Dallas to the south, make it
questionable as to the usefulness of this site for a marathon.

The second attempt was from the Andromeda Galaxy Observatory in Fort
Davis, TX, on 19-20 March 99.  The weather was absolutely perfect, with
no clouds at all during the evening.  The wind even died down to 0 as
the sun set.  I used my Criterion RV-6 and my 7x50 binoculars.  The
evening started out great as I found M74 for the first time, and M77 and
M33 as the skies darkened.  Now I know why the Fort Davis area is said
to have the darkest skies in North America.  As soon as I realized I saw
all of three of these, the idea of getting all 110 seemed like it
definite possibility.  I did manage to work through the entire catalog,
and finished up with about 10 minutes to spare as the sun began to
brighten up the sky at about 6:00 am.  The 15 minutes it took to find
M30 seemed like forever!  We even saw the Venus-Saturn-Moon conjunction,
Mars, Mir, and Omega Centauri during the night.  To top things off, a
meteor left a trail right through my field of view once.  A
non-astronomer friend saw about 80 of the objects before calling it a
night.

All 110!  And I'd like to try it again.

Best Regards,
Russ Pinizzotto
Professor of Materials Science
University of North Texas