by Paul LeFevre
It didn't look good. As I headed up 152 to Pacheco Pass, it began to rain heavily, and I was beginning to think I'd made the long drive for nothing. Suddenly the rain stopped, and a beautiful rainbow sprang into view -- surely a hopeful sign?
It was encouraging to see the circle of what were obviously astronomers standing around the parking lot when I arrived. What made it obvious? Every few seconds someone would look up nervously at the sky, then down at their watch. What an insane bunch of optimists...and worriers at the same time :) Handshakes all around, and it was nice to finally put faces on the e-mail personalities I've come to know.
We decided to be brave and set up our equipment, though the skies showed little reason for rational hope that it would clear. As we were still pulling pieces of equipment out of cars, the crescent moon and Venus peeked out from clearing clouds, then Sirius made an appearance...it was clearing after all!
I set up my little home-built 6" dob next to Marsha Robinson and her bigger Orion dob, who would be my Messier Buddy for the night as we went after objects on our list. Just as it was getting dark enough to see something other than planets and Sirius, I dropped down below the Dog Star to pick up M41, and the marathon was on!
I've listed the M's I nailed below -- 50 in all, which is not bad for both a first marathon and only a half night! The weather did a hide-and-seek number all night, clearing for a while only to have the clouds roll in again. The ground was just wet enough to soak inadequately covered feet, and the dew problem was of epic proportions. At about 10:00 PM I actually saw water dripping out the ventilation holes in the back of my mirror cell...not a good sign! The seeing was good but not great, with good transparency but very turbulent air.
Marsha and I were both going after our own targets in our own order, but we popped back and forth from each other's scopes frequently to have a peek at something neat, to verify that we were seeing what we thought we saw, and to help each other see a star pattern around a difficult object. We found some interesting things besides Messiers to break up the M hunt: NGC 2128, a very faint cluster right on the border of M35, which we picked up in my 6" thinking it was a small Nebula, until Mark Wagner confirmed it was indeed that little NGC cluster. On my way to another M, I also happened across a galaxy that nearly filled 1/4 of my eyepiece view, seen nearly edge-on, and even in my little 6" I could pick out some dust lanes. Since I only had my Messier-dedicated charts, I called over Mark Wagner again (thanks, Mark!), and he again showed his knowledge of the sky...a quick glance in the eyepiece, then a glance to see where the scope was pointed, and then back to the eyepiece..."NGC 4565. A nice view of it. Lots of people photograph this one," he said, and I could see why.
Marsha's scope was starting to suffer badly from the dew by about 10:30, but mine was still holding up, and I managed to get M95 and M96 into the same eyepiece view (very nice!), and stay dew-free long enough to explore the cluster of galaxies in Virgo. Finally, just before midnight, my mirrors were looking pretty misty, and the dew got me as well. I put the scope in the car in the hopes of drying it out a bit and trying more later, but then the fog rolled in, others started packing up and leaving, and so reluctantly about 12:30 I headed down the mountain as well.
I had a great time. Thanks to Marsha Robinson for "buddying up" with me, and helping me find many of the M's I checked off. Thanks to Mark Wagner for helping us verify some of our finds, and for the views of M42 and M3 through the 20"...I gotta get a bigger scope :) Again, it was great to meet everyone on TAC that came, and I look forward to more dew-free nights this spring and summer!
Oh, and Rashad -- that 12.5" is one beautitful piece of work!
Paul
Half Messier Marathon list in order seen: M41 M74 M77 M33 M45 M42 M43 M79 M31 M32 M110 M52 M103 M76 M78 M108 M97 M95 M96 M105 M65 M66 M101 M51 M63 M94 M3 M35 M44 M68 M104 M53 M64 M37 M36 M38 M109 M106 M40 M60 M59 M58 M89 M90 M88 M91 M87 M86 M84 M100