The "M"ie Awards

by Jane Houston

Our night sky is the best show in town. Those brave enough try to "see M all" during March Messier Madness deserve some awards. The results have been tabulated. Here's my own 1999 Messier Award winners - the "M"ies.

Best Visual Effects

one day old crescent Moon with earthshine, plus Saturn, and Venus lined up on Thursday night - a crowd pleaser!

Best Documentary

BYU Astronomy Professor and H.A.S. member Jay Wrathall's's CCD Messier slide show - all 110 taken in 1998 to qualify for the Hawaiian Astronomy club's 1998 Messier Challenge from club VP Barry Peckham. The ranch guests and astronomers alike loved the two-night show!

Best Live Action

the 60 MPH winds which increased at night. Then increased some more.

Best Sound Effects

the shaking Molokai Ranch Tentalow, buffeted by those winds - we were sure we would be joining Dorothy in Oz! The red flannel sheets and checkered flannel blankets muffled some sounds, thank goodness!

Best Costume

Eddie from Maui wearing his Molokai Ranch terry bathrobe all day and night to keep warm - sometimes bunched up around his middle giving him a big terry cloth beer belly.

Second best costume

Professorial Jay Wrathall in a Planetary Aloha shirt.

Best Song

Jane and Mojo singing the entire 6 plus minutes of Christine Lavin's Planet X on a group beach hike. At the end, we were told to keep our day jobs!

Best beverage

Marty and Deena Buchanan from Irving Texas sharing their Glenlivet single malt whiskey with the ensembled cast. Served in enamel camp tin cups around a roaring fire in the pouring rain. Perfect!

Best Director

Barry Peckham for his coordination of the great March Messier Marathon on Molokai

Best ensemble

Marty and Deena Buchanan with their 17.5 truss tube dob - mirror transported in a Barbie box. Jay Wrathall with his 80mm Orion short tube refractor. Eddie from Maui with his10x80 Fujinon binos. Barry Peckham with his 15 inch LITEBOX reflector. Jane and Morris (Mojo) Jones with Strider, the traveling 12.5 inch LITEBOX reflector, and new 9 x 63 Celestron binos, and Molokai Ranch's 12.5 LITEBOX reflector.

Tied for best performance by a non-Messier

glowing Eta Carina and sparkling Omega Centauri, colorful Jewel Box and inky Coal Sack. Alpha and Beta Centauri, Centaurus A Radio Galaxy. The list goes on and on.

Best screenplay

Don Machholz's Messier Marathon Observer's Guide

Second best screenplay

the Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide by Harvard Pennington

Best Documentary

http://www.seds.org/TAC/reports/98.05.05.html - we had a successful run through the 70 objects on this galaxy hop. I directed Marty, Barry and Mojo, manning the 17.5, 15 and 12.5 inchers as they hopped from Vindemiatrix at the beginning of the hop to M's 98, 99 and 100 at the end, and over to 53, 64 and finally M3. Messiers plus NGC objects plus double stars.

Best short subject

Markarian's Chain of Galaxies in Virgo during the Virgo Galaxy hop

Best comedy routine by someone under 12 years old

Jacob from Connecticut - our mascot for the weekend - telling us: "Orion keeps losing his belt (due to swiftly moving clouds). I wonder how he keeps his pants up?" Ha Ha, verry funny, Jacob!

Best Picture

The skies above Molokai, whales splashing in the ocean, good times with good friends, new friends, laughter and bad jokes, showering under the stars, while being showered by rain through the roofless bathroom - I'll leave the rest to your imaginations!

And now the "M"ies...

Thursday dusk to 2:00 AM: 77, 45, 79, 42, 43, 78, 1, 35, 37, 36, 38, 41, 93, 47, 46, 50, 48, 44, 67, 95, 96, 105, 65, 66, 81, 82, 97, 108, 109, 40, 106, 94, 63, 51 - wowie!, 58, 78, 53, 64, 3, 98, 99, 100, 85, 84, 86, 87, 60, 49, 61, 104, 83, 5, 13, 57, 4, 80, 8,7, 22, 20 - that's 60 "M"s thru 12.5 inch F5.75; 15 inch F 5.5 and 17.5 F4.5 reflectors from 60 to 300 power, and some in the 9 X 63 new Celestron Binos.

Sunday before dawn thru Celestron 9 X 63 binos: 68, 92, 27, 71, 14, 9, 6, 7, 11, 26, 16, 17, 18, 24, 23, 21, 20, 8(again), 28, 22 (again), 69, 70, 54 that's 21 more "M"s, for a grand total of 81. Not bad thru the clouds and sucker holes!

Jane Houston
Seen "M" all, but not this time