First try at a Marathon

by Tom Frayne


Saturday at Pacheco, I was using my Ultima 2000 driven by The Sky on the grass by the fence. It was also my first try at a marathon, and I came to the conclusion that all galaxies are "hard", at least for me. Usually, I blame the bright sky in my San Jose back yard. Saturday I blamed the dew, but I think the main problem is that I just haven't learned how to see a galaxy. The only galaxy on my observed list was M31. I spent a lot of time trying to see M65 and M66 without success, though I might have have gotten a brief glimpse of something.

Would anyone care to share a list of the easiest galaxies?

Here is my observed list. I think I observed a few more that I forgot to record.

Observations at Pacheco State Park
March 20, 1999
TypeName
7:28 PM
Open Cluster M52
Spiral Galaxy M31
Nebula M43
Nebula M42
Open Cluster M36
Open Cluster M38
Open Cluster M48
8:23 PM
Open Cluster M41
Open Cluster M93
Open Cluster M46
Open Cluster M47
Open Cluster M50
Open Cluster M67
Open Cluster M45 (The Pleiades)
Open Cluster M34
Open Cluster M44
10:18 PM
Globular Cluster M53
11:03 PM
Globular Cluster M3
Globular Cluster M5
11:08 PM
PlanetMars