There were probably close to two dozen observers at the site, most of whom were there for the marathon. Some came-and-went, and others just did their own thing. The evening started out quite windy and hazy, but both improved somewhat after sunset. We had low haze all night with occasional high, thin clouds passing through. Wind and seeing was quite variable throughout the night, and low objects were always difficult due to the haze.

This was my first time participating in a Messier Marathon, and I had a lot of fun -- especially with all the other active observers around.

For each object, I first attempted to glimpse them "naked eye". My main instrument for the marathon was my 10x50 Orion Ultraview binocular. But in the event that the 10x50s were not sufficient for confirmed detection, I used my Telrad and finder scope in conjunction with the manual controls of my 8" f/10 LX-200 to do a conventional star hop.

For objects which I was unable to locate manually, I used my LX-200's computer to automatically slew to them so that I could at least see each Messier object before morning. I don't count these as "finds"; I simply wanted to have seen all of the objects by morning.

I used the LX-200's computer for confirmation of M77 after a suspected binocular detection (which turned out to be a real "find"). Beyond that, the computer was used to find some of the Coma/Virgo objects for which I ran out of steam and/or time, and for a few dim objects near the end of the list which were too difficult for my manual search in the morning glow. And of course I also used the computer for quick diversions during lulls in the hunt, and to get better views of my favorite Messiers after finding them manually with the binos.

In addition to seeing most of the Messier objects that night, the night also included two views of comet Hale-Bopp; once as an evening object, and then again in the morning. The comet (as usual lately) was spectacular. I suspect that it was into the negative magnitudes at this time.

Also seen during the marathon were Mars (which was almost too bright to look at, being at opposition) and Jupiter (which was very "mushy" in the dawn sky)

I expect that I would have had eight additional finds to report, had I taken the time to study and practice on the Virgo and Coma galaxies in advance. I'll be ready for them next year!

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Messier Score Card

Total number of "finds" was 97:

Naked Eye (10 objects):
31, 45, 42/43, 35, 38, 44, 13, 20, 8
(I've also seen 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 33 and a few others "naked eye" on better nights, but this particular night was not transparent enough at the elevations I was working with)

10x50 Orion Ultraview Binocular (76 objects):
77, 74, 33, 52, 103, 76, 34, 79, 78, 1, 37, 36, 41, 93, 47, 46, 50, 48, 67, 95, 96, 105, 65, 66, 81, 82, 97, 108, 109, 40, 106, 94, 63, 51, 101, 102(=ngc5866), 53, 64, 3, 49, 61, 104, 68, 83, 5, 92, 57, 56, 29, 39, 27, 71, 107, 12, 10, 14, 9, 4, 80, 19, 62, 6, 7, 11, 26, 16, 17, 18, 24, 25, 23, 21, 28, 22, 55, 15

32, 110, 98, 99, 100, 85, 84, 86, 69, 70, 54

Total number of "misses" was 13:

LX-200 computer-controlled slews (12 objects):
87, 89, 90, 88, 91, 58, 59, 60, 75, 2, 72, 73

Too washed out by sunlight (1 object):
30