I had a wonderful Messier search in Sonoita! I won't call it a Marathon. I think I'm not cut out for staying up much past 2:00 a.m. But the skies are gorgeously dark! Dew zapper? Who needs it! Thank you, Mike, for the wonderful hospitality at a great observing site with great horizons.
It was late when I got there. Imagine my surprise to find out I would be using Mike's 6"! What a treat! Mike was trying CCD with his 18". I thought the pictures looked terrific, but he wasn't pleased. I do agree that his 6" pictures are more beautiful.
I bought a few toys for the trip. For my first object, I looked at the Pleiades with my new Ultima 9 X 63's! I picked one of my favorites for first light. The sisters were gorgeous. Next I strapped my new Telrad to the 6". I am hopeless without it.
After a few vain attempts in the already setting Cassiopeia, I decided to build confidence with M42 and M43. I was quite pleased. I got through Orion, Taurus and Auriga. M36-M38 reminds me of the first time I found objects on my own. I love comparing the 3 open clusters, each so different from the others. I like M35 in Gemini because of that bright, pretty NGC 2175. I used a beautiful 22mm TeleVue Panoptic (48x) most of the time for all these open clusters, and magnified the occasional globular or planetary with a 9 mm Meade (118x).
Next I went through Canis Major, Puppis, Monoceros and Cancer. I pulled out my new binocular again for the easily visible Beehive. I skipped past the Zenith and hit M3, M101, the dubious M102, then on to Leo. It was approaching 2:00 a.m. and I was really tired, but I knew Mike would be using the 6" for CCD the next night. I stayed up a little longer and headed to the Big Dipper. I love the long thin M108 and my favorite planetary, the Owl Nebula.
The next night I used Mike's 4". Imagine my pleasure when I realized there is a second box of eyepieces that I was unaware of the previous night! I enjoy comparing eyepieces and sometimes tried 4 or 5 on an object. On this night I did most of my finding with a 17mm TeleVue Plossl (54x) and magnified with a 10.5mm TeleVue Plossl (87x). But I played around with many others, sometimes trying 5 or 6 eyepieces on an object.
I started by aligning my Telrad on Saturn, then I nailed the elusive M77! Unfortunately, by the time I was done the Triangulum and Andromeda were gone. :-( I headed over to Cassiopeia. A nice wide angle 32mm Meade Super Wide Angle saved the night. I was looking for M103. Every time I pointed the telrad I saw 4 or 5 stars sitting togeter, but where was the open cluster? I tried and tried with the same results. Finally I use the 32mm which was wide enough to show two bright stars and M103. Sure enough, exactly where the open cluster was supposed to be were those 4 or 5 stars! This isn't the most impressive open cluster I've seen.
I finished Perseus, Lepus and then continued where I had left off the previous night in Ursa Major. I went on to Canes Venatici. Of course M51 was incredible! Then it was time for Coma. I had forgotten everything Jay had taught me about Markarian's Chain and didn't know how I would get through it! It was much easier than I expected. I used the 22mm (42x) exclusively and got through all of Coma and Virgo in about 40 minutes. The secret is dark skies and a Telrad. It's no problem if you can see the nearby stars naked eye. I'm pretty good with that Telrad. Sometimes after looking at an object with the 10.5mm, I would get lazy and point the Telrad without switching back to the 17mm. More times than not, the object would be visible in the eyepiece.
I finished Corvus, Hydra and was pleased to move on to M5, M13 and M92, 3 globular jewels. I got a few objects in the rising Ophiuchus and Scorpius. I was getting tired waiting for more stars to rise. I got M57 before I decided to call it quits. I was too tired to wait for more objects.
Then I got a real treat to finish off the "Marathon." Mike was looking at Mars with his 4.8mm (222x). WoW!! That was beautiful! I have never seen Mars like that! The orangish brown color was easy to see and I could even make out some features on the planet. If I hadn't been so tired I would have drawn a beautiful picture.
After I started putting things away, I realized Sagittarius was up and there was still plenty to do. But I was so tired. Next year I will have to practice staying up later. I was happy to get 68 Messiers in 2 nights of observing and learn a lot about what eyepieces I like.