A real marathon...

by Paul LeFevre


For me, a chance to try the Messier Marathon this year was a measure of my growth as an observer. I showed up at TAC's marathon last year as a complete newbie, having only observed 4 or 5 Messier objects and with a brand new home-built 6" scope that was getting its first night out in dark skies. I learned a lot that night (mostly about how bad dew can get!), and managed to bag 50 Messiers, almost all of which I was seeing for the first time.

It seemed somewhat appropriate that I was going to try the Marathon this year with another recently-finished homemade scope, which had been out a couple of times but was getting its first full dark-sky night out for the Marathon. With more aperture on the new scope (12.5"), I was sure the Marathon would be easier...

I arrived at Henry Coe State Park at about 1:30 PM, to find the lot full of cars owned by day-trippers and mountain bikers, with a couple of lonely astronomers sitting in chairs shooting the breeze...I joined Jim Bartolini and Ken Head in a little circle as we swizzled beers, talked about anything and everything, and waited for those darn lowlanders to clear out of "our" parking lot. Because a lot of the late-leaving daytime cars were scattered all over the lot, and orderly setup wasn't really possible, and when astronomers began to arrive in greater numbers we were spread all over the observing area. I finally got set up next to Jim Bartolini -- Jamie Dillon set up Felix -- an 11" Celestron dob -- across from me, and in an ironic twist Nilesh Shah set up on my other side to try a marathon with the tube and mount that I had used from last year's marathon, that he has modified and named "Alfani."

Once the sun dipped below the horizon, Messier hunting began in earnest. The night had a somewhat discouraging beginning, as the first three M's on the list (M77, M74, and M33) proved impossible to pick out of the low clouds and bright twilight in the west. Knowing within an hour of sunset that it would be impossible to get all 110 objects was a bit disheartening, but I was still determined to pick off as many of the remaining 107 as I could!

Other Marathoners in the group (Richard Navarrete and Paul Sterngold) missed M31's companions because they couldn't get their scopes on M31 due to obstructions, but my more northern location in the lot and clear shot to the North-East let me get all three M's in the area (M31, M32, and M110), and with those three under my belt I was off to the races.

I followed Ed Ting's observing list from the March Sky & Telescope magazine, along with homemade charts showing star-hop locations for all of the Messiers in the order they were to be observed. The charts served me well, and by 10:30 PM I had knocked off 47 Messiers -- everything on the list up to the Virgo/Coma cluster of galaxies. Short interruptions to trade views with Nilesh and Jamie had been welcome diversions, and I shared several views of M's as I found them with the wandering pack of Boy Scouts that was paying a visit (they were all very well-behaved, seemed genuinely interested, and were profuse in offering thanks for letting them use our scopes -- no problem at all!).

As I started into the Virgo/Coma cluster, I immediately noticed a problem that I didn't have during last year's Marathon -- with more aperture, I could see a LOT more galaxies, and most of them were not Messier objects! I started with M98 and M99, and was worried about walking through the M's in that huge cluster and getting the proper identification. In came Jamie Dillon to the rescue. Jamie showed me the walk through Markarian's chain, pointing out Messiers and non-Messier galaxies along the way. It was fascinating to have him stand next to me, my eye to the scope, and Jamie reciting the moves like he was telling someone how to get to his house..."Move down and to the right -- see those two galaxies that look like a pair of eyes? Good, now move one eyepiece field down, and pick up that dim edge-on galaxy..." With Jamie helping to work my way through, I got through the cluster in about 25 minutes, not only seeing all of the Messier objects, but many more along the way -- and burning a lot of the navigation into my brain. When you consider that Jamie's only been doing this a year like I have, his knowledge of the area is outstanding!

Getting through the Virgo/Coma cluster took me to 64 objects found, and the load was light but steady for the hours past midnight until the difficult objects just before morning twilight. Perhaps because of fatigue, I had a difficult time finding some objects that I had observed dozens of times before, but somehow couldn't seem to properly locate. Nilesh, showing how much he has learned, pointed out an easy star-hop to M92 (put the Telrad on this star, move 40% of the way to THAT star...and there was the pretty globular in the eyepiece), and Jamie helped out again after I spent 10 frustrating minutes trying to find M5 with no luck. I returned the favor on a few other objects, all of which reminded me what a great joy it is to observe with people who share the same enthusiasm for this stuff as I do.

At 4:00 AM I picked up the globular cluster M54 in Sagittarius, giving me 100 objects for the night -- and doubling my tally from last year. If I hadn't been so tired, I would have done a little dance of joy...but there was still work to be done. Two more globulars, M55 and M75, fell to my scope quickly -- leaving only five difficult early-morning objects to go. I chatted with Richard N. about this time, comparing Marathon notes, and we both agreed that M15 and M2 wouldn't be up for a while, so Richard decided to take a nap, and I promised to wake him when our targets had risen. I sat down and had some coffee, and looked up to the east -- there was Pegasus, already fairly high up! I picked off M15 and M2, then went and woke up Richard so he could get them (I don't think he got to even close his eyes for more than 5 minutes!). M72 was next, a faint galaxy that showed up in the eyepiece after searching for only a few minutes, and from there it was a short hop down to little M73. That made 106 objects, and only one left to go, the globular cluster M30 in Capricornus. My charts had indicated that M30 wouldn't be leading the sun by very much, so I wasn't optimistic about the prospects of getting it. Capricorn was up, but I was having a hard time seeing stars to hop from, and the east was beginning to brighten with the approaching sun. Sweeping my scope back and forth across a line from Zeta Cap to Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinis, I finally spotted a faint glow against the brightening sky -- M30! Just as I was memorizing the starfield, Nilesh called out that he had found it as well...I went over to his scope, looked in, and saw the same starfield and dim glow. We were pretty sure we had nailed it, when Richard N. called us down to a 12.5" scope located at the far southern end of the lot, with M30 in the view...taking a peek, I saw the same starfield, and the same glow -- success!

I logged 107 Messier objects Saturday night/Sunday morning, all but those first three that I missed almost 12 hours before finding M30. I not only got to see *almost* all of the Messiers in one night, but because I was a better observer this year I found them faster, giving me a fair amount of time to savor the delights of each one I found. I also got to share views of many of them with friends and visitors, and got to spend the night with the most pleasant company a guy could ask for. The long night was capped off nicely when Jamie pointed out the rising crescent moon poking above the Eastern hills as we were packing up...perfect. A wonderful night with good weather, good observing, and very good company.

If only I hadn't missed those first three...ah, well, there's always next year!