Messier Marathon Observer's Results

• Historical Messier Marathon Results (before 1990)
• 1990 Results
• 1991 Results
• 1992 Results
• 1993 Results
• 1994 Results
• 1995 Results
• 1996 Results
• 1997 Results
• 1998 Results
• 1999 Results
• 2000 Results
• 2001 Results
• 2002 Results
• 2003 Results
• 2004 Results
• 2005 Results
• 2006 Results
• 2007 Results
• 2008 Messier Marathon
• Messier Marathon Eternal Hall of Fame: All reported results with full success of 110 observed Messier objects
• All Reported Messier Marathon Results Table

In 1976, Tom Hoffelder and Tom Reiland of Pittsburgh, PA, noticed that it would be possible to observe most, if not all Messier objects in one night around the first day of spring (March 21) each year. They decided to try it in 1977. That year, both of them did (though Tom Hoffelder had moved to Akron, OH), and also Ed Flynn of Pittsburgh did a marathon (which was probably the first ever). Tom Hoffelder notified Walter Scott Houston of Sky & Telescope who published the story in March 1979 (when Tom had already moved again to Florida). Don Machholz states to have realized the possibility even in the late 1960s, but did not begin further investigation until 1978. Eventually, Gerry Rattley was the first marathoner to log all 110 Messier objects in the night of March 23/24, 1985 from Dugas, Arizona.

• Ed Flynn of Pittsburgh, PA logged 98 Messier objects on March 24/25, 1977 with a 6" f/8 reflector.
• Tom Hoffelder logged 101 on March 25/26, 1977 from Akron, OH with a 10-inch f/5.6 reflector
• Tom Reiland of Pittsburgh, PA logged 103 on April 11/12, 1977 (6" f/6 reflector)

• Ed Flynn of Pittsburgh, PA logged 102 on March 10/11, 1978 (10" f/5.6)

• Don Machholz logged 107 (all but M74, M110, and M30) on the weekend of March 23/24, 1979, from Poma Prieta near San Jose, California (in a SJAA event) with a 10" f/3.8 reflector - the first score of more than 103. Jack Zeiders logged 101 on the same event (10" f/5).
• Tom Reiland of Pittsburgh, PA logged 107 (all but M74, M77, and M30) on March 27/28, 1979, with a 6" f/6 reflector.
• John Bartels of Suisun, CA logged 104 on March 29/30, 1979 with an 80mm f/6.3 refractor.
• Don Machholz and Gerry Rattley both logged 108 (all but M74 and M33) on March 30/31, 1979 from Loma Prieta, California - Don Machholz used a 10" f/3.8 and Gerry Rattley a 10" f/5.7 reflector.

• Don Machholz logged 109 Messier objects (all but M30) on March 12/13, 1980. from Loma Prieta, CA with a 10" f/3.8 reflector. This was the first recorded viewing of 109 Messier objects.
• Brent Archinal observed 107 Messier objects (missing M55, M72 and M30) in the night of March 15/16, 1980 from Delaware, Ohio with a 32" f/16 Cassegrain telescope.
• Ed Flynn logged 109 objects (all but M30) in the same night of March 15/16, 1980 from Pittsburgh, PA with a 10-inch f/5.6 reflector.
• Tom Reiland of Pittsburgh, PA logged 109 objects (all but M30) on March 15/16, 1980 with a 6-inch f/6.
• Don Machholz and Ken Wilson of the SJAA logged 109 (all but M30) on March 15/16, 1980 from Loma Prieta, CA; Don used a 10" f/3.8 and Ken an 8" f/6 reflecting telescope.
• Also on March 15/16, 1980, Rick Balbridge of Los Altos, CA logged 108 Messier objects with a 16.5-inch reflector, missing only M74 and M30.
• John Bartels observed 107 Messier objects from Copay, CA with an 80-mm f/6.3 refractor on March 16/17, 1980 (missing M72, M73 and M30).

• Wally Brown and Bob Bruckner attempted an early Messier Marathon in the night of February 6/7, 1981 from New River, Arizona. Wally Brown observed 102 Messier objects with an 8-inch f/10 SC telescope, while Bob Bruckner hunted down 101 objects with a 5-inch f/5 refractor.
• Don Machholz observed 109 Messier objects (all but M30) during a Messier Marathon on March 5/6, 1981 from Loma Prieta, California with his 10-inch f/3.8 reflector.
• In his second Messier Marathon of that year, Wally Brown observed 104 Messier objects on March 29/30, 1981 from New River, Arizona, with his 8-inch f/10 SC telescope.
• In his second attempt of that year on April 3/4, 1981, Don Machholz hunted down 107 Messier objects (missing M77, M74 and M30) again with his 10-inch f/3.8 reflector from Loma Prieta, CA.
• The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) held their first Messier Marathon on April 4-5, 1981 in New River, Arizona. This was the first greater Messier Marathon event recorded. Paul Maxson observed 108 (missing M74 and M77), Greg Askins, Wally Brown (his third attempt of 1981), Bob Buckner (second 1981 attempt) and George Kohl 107 each (missing also M33), and Ron Caciola found 103.
• In addition, the SAC held their first Messier Plus Marathon (75 Ms, 34 NGCs, and Brocchi's Cluster, Collinder 399) on September 26, 1981 at New River, Arizona (we have more info on Messier Plus Marathon).
• Brent Archinal of Delaware, OH observed 33 objects, M2 to M34, in an 11x80 binocular marathon on July 30-31, 1981. He observed them in their numeric order.

• In a Messier Marathon attempt on March 20/21, 1982, Don Machholz hunted down 70 Messier objects from Loma Prieta, CA with his 10" f/3.8 reflector; then clouds interferred.
• Phil Harrington logged 107 Messier objects on his first Messier Marathon on March 27-28, 1982 from Westport, CT with an 8-inch reflector, missing M74, M77, and M30.
• The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC)'s second Messier Marathon was held on March 27/28 at Dugas, Arizona, but clouded out at the end - Wally Brown bagged 103.
• The Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) held their second Messier Plus Marathon on September 18, 1982.

• The 1983 Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) Messier Marathon was held on March 12/13 at Dugas, Arizona. Four observers, namely Wally Brown, Ron Caciola, Ron Hatcher, and Gerry Rattley got 109, and four more got over 100: Grant Klassen (108), Jim Glass (107), Tom McGrath (106) and Roland Scharer (102).
• David Levy logged 109 Messier objects (all but M30) on March 15/16, 1983 from Tucson, Arizona, with his 40-cm scope, as documented in his book, The Sky: A User's Guide (p. 222-225).
• Don Machholz undertook a Messier Marathon attempt at the unusual date of July 9/10, 1983, from Loma Prieta, CA, with his 10-inch f/3.8 reflector, and hunted down 96 Messier objects (missing M42, M43, M78, M50, M79, M47, M46, M48, M41, M93, M44, M67, M1, and M35).

• Only 3 days after Full Moon, on March 19/20, 1984, Don Machholz undertook a Messier Marathon from Loma Prieta, CA with his 10-inch f/3.8 Newtonian reflector, and logged 109 objects (all but M30).
• Phil Harrington hunted down 103 Messier objects during a Messier Marathon held March 31/April 1, 1984 at Southold, NY, using a 13.1-inch reflector.
• In a late Messier Marathon held on April 28/29, 1984 at Anza, California, Milt Henderson scored 105 (missing M77, M74, M33, M34 and M79), Chuck Edwards found 104 (missing also M45), and Charlie Oostdyk observed 100 Messier objects (missing M76, M31, M32, M110 in addition). Milt used an 8" f/10 SC, Chuck a 10" f/5.5 Newtonian, and Charlie a 14" f/11 SC telescope.

• Don Machholz undertook two Messier marathon attempts in 1985, from Loma Prieta, California. The first one took place on March 15/16, when he observed 92 Messier objects with a 10-inch f/3.8 reflector and 77 with a 20x80 binoculars before clouds interferred. His second attempt was successful: He observed 109 Messier objects (all but M30) in the 10-inch and 107 in the binoculars (missing also M74 and M110). On the second occasion, he was accompanied by Rich Page who also observed 109 objects (missing M30) with a 5-inch f/5 refrector.
• (drums !) Gerry Rattley logged all 110 Messier objects for the first time from Dugas, AZ, on March 23/24, 1985, with his 10-inch f/5.7 Newton, during the 1985 Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) Messier Marathon. Congratulations ! On this event, four more observers got over 100: Dan Ward (109), Wally Brown and Paul Lind (108 each) and Shane Fortune (107).
• (drums again!) Rick Hull also logged all 110 Messier objects in the same night of March 23/24, 1985 [but about one hour later as M30 rises later in more western California], with a 10-inch f/20 Cassegrain from Anza, California. He was assisted by Bob Hoover. During the same event ant Anza, four more amateurs observed more than 100 Messier objects: Dave Radosevich found 109 (missing only M74), as did Jim Hannum (missing M30), while Kenneth Adler observed 106, and David Bird logged 103. (Thanks to D. Lynn and Don Machholz for contributing this outstanding news!)
• Also in the same night of March 23/24, 1985, Jim McGaha logged 109 Messier objects (all but M30) from Tucson, Arizona with a 16-inch f/4.5 Newtonian reflector.
• On night later, on March 24/25, 1985, Tucson, Arizona amateur astronomers Tim Hunter and Jim McGaha hunted down 109 Messier objects, missing only M30, Tim Hunter using a 16-inch f/5.5, Jim McGaha a 12.5-inch f/5 Newtonian reflector.

• Tom Hoffelder and his wife, Lynn Hoffelder, logged 106 objects on March 8-9, 1986 with a 6" f/10 refractor from Palm Beach, FL, missing M2, M72, M73, and M30 (this night, they also observed comet Halley with a 5 deg tail !)

• Don Machholz attempted two Messier Marathons in 1988: The first seesion took place on March 11/12, 1988 at Uvas Res., CA, when he found 86 objects with his 10-inch f/3.8 Newtonian before interferring clouds ended this attempt. In his second run on March 18/19, 1988 from Loma Prieta, CA, he hunted down 109 objects (all but M30).
• Tom Hoffelder also tried it two times in 1988, from Oklahoma City with an 8" f/6 telescope, and logged 104 objects on March 12-13, and 109 (all but M30 which he didn't try) on March 18-19, 1988 In the second run, he was accompanied by Frank Phipps who also found 109 objects (all but M30) with a 6" f/10 refractor.
• Tim Hunter and Dan Knauss undertook the first-ever reported Photographic Messier Marathon in the night of March 19-20, 1988 from their Grasslands Observatory in Southeastern Arizona. With their 24-inch f/5 Newtonian, an Olympus OM-1 and hypersensitized Konica SR-V 3200 film they managed to photograph 84 Messier objects (clearly recognizable on the negatives), plus 19 NGC and IC objects. See their report!
• Phil Harrington bagged 91 Messier objects with a 13.1-inch reflector during a marathon on March 19/20, 1988 from Southold, NY. He made it about 2:30 AM, when clouds came through and obscured the sky for the rest of the night.
• The Charlotte Amateur Astronomers, Union Co., North Carolina, run a Messier Marathon on March 19/20, 1988 with various instruments. Members found all 110 Messier objects (see Astronomy 11/1988; thanks to Don Machholz for communicating).
• Amateur astronomers at Palmdale, California had a successful Messier Marathon event on March 19/20, 1988. David Goldwater and Martin Puskas observed all 110 Messier objects, Jim Brunkella found 109, and Larry Martinson and Martin Hale hunted down 108 each (VCAS4/88).

• Tom Hoffelder logged 104 objects from Oklahoma City on March 31/April 1, 1989, with his 8" f/6 reflector.

• Phil Harrington observed 69 Messier objects with a 13.1-inch reflector when attempting a Messier Marathon from Westport, CT on March 23/24, 1990. He suffered from poor showing due to clouds around midnight and only made it through to about Hercules.
• Don Machholz ran two attempts in 1990 with his 10" f/3.8 Newton: The first, on March 24/25, from Henry Coe Park, CA ended prematurely after logging 67 objects when clouds and fog interferred. In his second marathon of that year, on March 30/31, Don hunted down 109 objects (all but M74) from Loma Prieta, CA.

• Phil Harrington had his personally best Messier Marathon on March 16/17 from Southold, NY. He hunted down 109 Messier objects with his 13.1-inch reflector (all but M30 which was impossible at his latitude at this time), and verified 101 of them with an 11x80 binoculars before the objective lenses fogged/frosted over.

• A group of German astronomers from the Volkssternwarte Hagen, led by Dirk Panczyk, undertook a Messier hunt on February 28-29, 1992 from a location in Sauerland, and bagged 78 Messier objects, losing especially many of the southern objects around Sagittarius, due to hazy horizon conditions (a report of this marathon was published in the German Sterne und Weltraum of January 1993).
• Phil Harrington managed to find 102 Messier objects on the occasion of a marathon hold on April 4/5, 1992 from Westport, CT. He participated in the Westport Astronomical Society's Messier Marathon and used their 12.5-inch reflector at Rolnick Observatory, together with various club members on a rotating basis.
• David Stine of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 98 Messier Objects.

• Amateurs from Nuremberg, Germany hold a Messier Marathon on March 19-20, 1993 at their Wetterberg observing station and obtained the following results: Ronald Stoyan (120mm f/8.5 Refractor): 103, Thomas Jaeger (317mm f/5 Newton/Dobson): 101, Klaus Veit (200mm f/6 Newton/Dobson; 2 hours late): 98.
• The 1993 All-Arizona Messier Marathon took place on March 20/21, 1993, under less favorable weather conditions. Paul Lind, in the first place, managed 94 objects with his 8-inch f/4.5 Newton, seven observers caught 50+.
• Don Machholz had a successful Messier Marathon in 1993 from Colfax, California, on March 20/21, he hunted down 109 Messier objects (all but M30) with a 6-inch Newtonian.
• On March 21-22, 1993, a Messier Marathon was held at the Centro de Observacao Astronomica no Algarve (COAA), Poio, 8500 Portimao, Portugal, led by British amateur Paul Money, logged the complete set of 109 objects they had looked for (their list did not include controverse M102).
• Marc Chouinard of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 95 Messier Objects.

• Don Machholz undertook a Messier Marathon attempt from Colfax, CA on March 18/19, 1994 with a 6-inch Newtonian. After hunting down 82 objects, interferring clouds ended this attempt.
• In March 1994, led by Paul Money, a Messier Marathon was hold at the COAA, Algarve, Portugal; a total of 99 objects was logged.
• The 1994 All-Arizona Messier Marathon was held late for Marathon season: April 9, 1994. Weather conditions were good, and four observers bagged 107 objects, a total of ten 100+.

• in the night of March 24/25, 1995, Don Machholz ran a Messier Marathon and observed 108 Messier objects (missing only M74 in the evening and M30 in the morning), with a 6-inch Newtonian from Colfax, CA.
• Peter Nicholl hunted down about 60 objects on his first attempt, which ended at 2 am, however, as reported in his March 1997 observing report
• In March 1995, amateurs led by Paul Money held a Marathon at the COAA, Algarve, Portugal.
• The 1995 All-Arizona Messier Marathon was held lately, in the night of April 1-2, at Arizona City, AZ. Weather was severely clear, except for one early evening hour. 58 scopes attended, and 26 forms turned in, 30 observers participating (52% participation). There was a new record of 22 observers with 100+ ! 3 observers scored best, each of them with 107 hits: Adam Block with Stephanie Garko, and Paul Lind. They all missed the early evening objects M77, M74, and M33. On this event, M77 was only seen by Stephen Alden and Janna Scott (who logged 106), while M74 and M33 were missed by all observers. Congratulations for these good results !
• James Liley of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 99 Messier Objects.

• Tony Cecce logged 101 objects on March 15-16 with a 8" F7 Coulter dobsonian (one of the last of these instuments). He posted his report to the ASTRO mailing list, so it is here.
• Wesley Stone scored 103 (all but M74, 30, 55, 70, 72, 73, 75); look at his 1996 Messier Marathon Results
• Shawn Clark hunted down 108 Messier objects (all but M74 and M30) on March 19-20, 1996 in his first Messier Marathon; congratulations for this high first-time talley ! Read his observing report !
• Phil Harrington has run his second best marathon this year. He picked off 107 of them (missing M30, M55, and M73) using his 18-inch reflector from a dark-sky site on eastern Long Island.
• Carl Lancaster of Greenwich, CT, used his 10-inch to find 100 of them from the same site on eastern Long Island.
• The 1996 All-Arizona Messier Marathon was hold on March 16-17, involving about 65 telescopes all crewed with observers in an excellent location 35 miles north of Kitt Peak (but 100 miles to drive), about half-way between Phoenix and Tucson. 30 observers published their results, including David Fredericksen of the SAC who hunted them all down with his 12.5-inch Dobsonian, 4 observers who logged 109 (all missing M30), and another 13 who logged at least 106, and two more in the "100 +" (thus a total of 20 observers). Congratulations!
• Dawn Jenkins was less lucky with the weather this time, but here is her Messier Marathon Report of March 15-16, 1996, when she, together with friends, logged 22 Messier objects + one NGC globular, plus observed comet Hyakutake
• Jim Hendrickson completed his most successful marathon to date on March 16-17, 1996. He tagged 76 objects with a 70mm Pronto (!). He pretty much skipped the entire Virgo cluster, and missed a few of the globulars in Sagittarius when dawn started.
• Chuck Musante of the University of Massachusetts bagged 98 Messier objects on March 16/17, 1996, from his local group's dark sky site in the Berkshire's of western Massachusetts (i.e., Arunah Hill). He missed the first six objects (his scope was in a bad place and couldn't get them through the trees), and he didn't get the last six (partially for the same reason). His observing companion, John Davis got 104 by using binoculars to get the first six. This was his second marathon; his first, in 1995, suffered from clouds after about 1:00 AM.
• The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) hold a Messier marathon, and the members achieved the following results (observing site given in parentheses): Bruce Miller (Crockett): 95, Craig Tupper (Savage): 89, Rich Kaiser (Savage): 88, Jon Stewart-Taylor (Parsells): 39. Read their Messier Marathon page.
• Tom Hoffelder logged 104 objects on March 16-17, 1996, with his 8" f/6 from San Jose, CA. He also observed 4 comets: two Hyakutake's, Szczepanski, and Hale-Bopp.
• Peter Nicholl logged 93 Messier objects on March 23-24, 1996, as reported in his March 1997 observing report
• Out of the run, but notable to see what can be done at any date, not only at Marathon time in March: At the Winter Star party this year, Scott Smith ran his personel "mini marathon", and bagged 56 Messier objects. Also respectable, taking into account that this was his first "mini thon" !
• James Liley of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 103 Messier Objects.

• The Astronomy Club (TAC) members held their 1997 TAC Messier Marathon on March 8-9, 1997, at Henry Coe park in Morgan Hill, California in rare clear weather, which turned cloudy and windy as sunset approached. Bill Arnett has collected the reports of the members of his informal Ptolemy Supper Club.
  • Attendent Akkana Peck hunted down 102 Messier objects, Centaurus A (which was christened the Hamburger Galaxy on this event), obtained several photos and observed brilliant comet Hale-Bopp. Read her observing report !
  • Mark Taylor hunted 97 Messier objects, and saw an additional 12 using his LX200 computer which are not counted as Marathon score (so he saw the achievable maximum of 109).
  • Rich Neuschaefer scored 105 objects with his A-P 130mm f/8 EDT refractor, missing M74, M72, M73 and M30, and forgot M2. He also observed comet Hale-Bopp.
  • Bill Arnett scored zero as he observed many Messier objects using his LX200 to its fullest; at least, he had his fun.
• Together with his friend Dean, Darryl Stanford hold their first Messier Marathon in Santa Rosa. As Darryl states in his report, he logged 50 while Dean scored 97 Messier objects. They have also observed comet Hale-Bopp, Mars, and several NGC objects.
• Jay R. Freeman's Messier Observing report of March 7 and 8, 1997
• Mark Wagner viewed from Henry Coe State Park south of San Jose, California on the night of March 8. Using a 14.5" f/5.6 dob and a 19mm Panoptic, Telrad finder, he viewed 104 Messiers.
• The 1997 All Arizona Messier Marathon was held on March 8-9, 1997, at a dark place near Arizona City. This was really a good night: 9 observers hunted down the possible maximum of that night, 109 objects (as M30 was impossible): The Alber's, Carl Anderson, Steve Bell, Paul Dickson, Flynn Haase, Bill Peters, Bernie Sanden, Bruce Walsh, and Charles Whiting. Five more observers achieved the 100+. Comet Hale-Bopp gave an extra show as it rised at 3 am.
• Messier Marathon inventor Tom Hoffelder finally managed to hold a 20th anniversary marathon in the night of April 6-7, 1997, from a place near Tulsa, Oklahoma, and logged 101 Messier objects, by chance the same number as in his first marathon 20 years ago.
• The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) hold their second Messier marathon this year, and the members achieved the following results (observing site was Crockett, unless otherwise noted): Bruce Miller and Craig Tupper: 105 each, Rich Kaiser: 104, Mike Walker: 102, Jon Stewart-Taylor (Rocky Mount NC): 20. Read their Messier Marathon page.
• Members of the German "Volkssternwarte Hagen" have held a Messier Marathon (their 6th since 1992) in Sauerland on March 7-8, 1997. As the location is not as favorable as others at this about 51 degrees Northern latitude, the "magical" mark of 100 was again not achieved, but their results are as follows: Frank Döpper (280 mm SC): 96, Dirk Panczyk (333 mm Newton): 88, Johannes Hernsdorf (114 mm Newton): 76.
• Scott Parker of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 67 Messier Objects, despite bad weather.

• Jeff Jenkins and Stephen Horan ran their Messier Marathon on the night of March 27/28, 1998. They were located north-east of Las Cruces, NM (approx: 106.7W, 32.6N). The main problem encountered was Zodiacal light and heavy haze near the horizon due to blowing dust much of the 26th and 27th. Stephen used a C-11 and star hopping, and finally bagged 104 Messier objects. Jeff used a Meade 8 and setting circles and found 108. Stephen missed M74 (sky too bright), M75, M2, M72, M73, and M30, Jeff missed only M77 and M30 but got the rest by using setting circles. M 32 and M33 were very difficult due to sky background brightness. However, during a practice run the week before, the two observers had no trouble with these objects.

  This is the first marathon for both observers. They had tried in 1997 but had been weathered out.

• Robert Davidson did his very first Messier Marathon on March 27/28, 1998 and immediately bagged all 110 Messier objects from the Arizona City observing site with his 8-inch f/8 telescope in a wonderful session with the coyotes as his only companions in this great site with room for well over 100 telescopes. See Bob's excellent report (based on our form). Congratulations, Bob !
• Dave Mitsky logged 58 Messier objects in a weather-limited Messier Marathon session from ASH Naylor Observatory, Lewisberry, PA on March 28-29, 1998.
• Jay R. Freeman, looking in vain for fellow observers in the San Francisco Bay area, eventually logged 40 Messier objects with his Meade 127 ED refractor from the Henry Coe State Park observing site on March 28, 1998.
• Troy Johnstone bagged 69 Messier objects on March 29-30, 1998 with his 8-inch Meade Starfinder Dobson from Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
• The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) Messier Marathon was pretty successfull, with a number of new "contentants", and with many previous participants increasing their totals. The 1998 results are available at their website, and a quick list is:

     Total          Name
      107       Craig Tupper
      104       Barry Wolfe
      104       Jonathan Bein
      102       Ron Cook
      100       Jon Stewart-Taylor
       35       John Avellone
       35       Ron Mickle
  

  Their original night was clouded out, but the following night was clear.
• Tony George from Umatilla, Oregon and the Tri-City Astronomy Club, SE Washington run a Messier Marathon from Holdman, OR on March 29, 1998, and observed 101 Messier objects (logged on our form !). He also run a second marathon on April 25, 1998 and bagged 91.
• On March 29-30, 1998, amateurs Mark Dunnett, Paul Money, Stephen and Timothy Tonkin, and Bev Ewen-Smith held a Marathon at the COAA, Algarve, Portugal, and three of them (Mark Dunnett, Stephen Tonkin and Paul Money) bagged the complete set of 109 objects they had looked for (their list did not include controverse M102), plus a number of NGC and IC objects. Note Stephen's report.
• David Stine of the TUVA Astronomy Club logged 88 Messier Objects, despite bad weather (again).
• Out of competition, Penny Fischer run her Mini Marathon on March 28 and bagged 18 objects.
• The Messier Marathon 1998 was an event of many unhappy failures. Above all, the enthusiastically prepared and well-planned 1998 All Arizona Messier Marathon, scheduled for March 28-29, fell victim to an unexpected rain-out, according to J.R. Freeman, some of the San Francisco Bay area astronomers were even hailed (see his report above), and one of the authors' (HF's) own first attempt to run a Messier Marathon from Konstanz/Germany on March 31, 1998 was infamously hazed and fogged out after having bagged only 21 and lost 4 objects in the evening sky (see report).

• The 1999 Arizona Messier Marathon, held March 13-14, 1999, was again a great success, with an attendence of 49 vehicles and 53 scopes. Five observers, namely Bill Ferris, Joe Goss, Michael Mathers, Tom Polakis, and Douglas Smith, hunted down 109 Messier objects, the maximum possible on this date (M30 being unavailable). Each two more observers saw 108 (missing also M72) and 107 (missing M30, M72 and M73) objects, respectively, five found 106 and each one observer logged 105, 104, 103, and 100 objects, giving a total of 18 marathoners with a result of 100 or more.
  Separate reports were contributed from participants Bobby Martin (105), who also reports Kasia Zabinski's score of 31 objects, and Douglas Smith (109) of the TAAA who run it together with Michael Mathers. Bill Ferris (109) has put his own Messier Marathon pages online, as did Steve Dodder (107) for his and his wife's marathon.
• Don Machholz run a Messier Marathon in the night of March 12/13, 1999 from Colfax, CA with his 6" Newtonian reflector. Having found all 100 objects to M69, he stopped his session and used the rest of the night for comet hunting.
• Russell F. Pinizzotto of the University of North Texas did two Messier Marathon sessions this year, the first time scoring 54 from the University of North Texas Observatory, and in the second attempt from the Andromeda Galaxy Observatory in Fort Davis, TX, on 19-20 March 99, scoring all 110 Messier objects ! Congratulations ! Read his report, and see his featured online article.
• On March 20th, 1999, Marc Daniels bagged 62 Messier objects in less than 5 hours. The weather wasn't the best. Around 11:30 or so, the sky was overcast. Marc did his observation at the 1999 East Coast Star Party in Coinjock, NC.
• Dave Mitsky of the Pennsylvania State University participated in a Messier Marathon at the East Coast Star Party on Friday, 3/19/99. Unfortunately, he arrived at the observing site too late to bag many of the early M objects. Even though he spent some time observing non-Messier objects through other people's scopes he managed to log 80 Messiers. Here is a revised copy of his report first published in sci.astro.amateur.
• The Kalamazoo Astronomical Society (Michigan, USA) held its most successful Messier Marathon to date March 19/20, 1999. Eight club members and 12 students started with this endeavor in the evening, but only three stayed to bag 103 Messier objects: Mike Dupuis, Dave Garten, and Mark E. Miller. Read Mark Miller's great report!
• Brian Pelletier and Scott Patterson did a mini-marathon on 3/13/99 in Colton, South Dakota. It was a bit brisk to do an all-nighter, but they bagged 44 Messiers in 3 1/2 hours. They are hoping to improve on this next time! See their report!
• Mark Deprest, President of the University Lowbrow Astronomers, run a Messier Marathon on 03/12/1999 from the Lake Hudson State Rec. Area (Lat: N41 50.274', Long: W84 14.638'), using a Meade 8" f/6 Newtonian on Dobsonian Mount. From this cold (28 deg F dropping to about 15 deg) and very dark site with overall seeing conditions he rated at 8.5 out of 10, he was able to see 87 Messier objects before the cold ended his MM at 04:30, 3.13.1999. See his report!
• Jane Houston of the SF Sidewalk Astronomers and the Hawaiian Astronomical Society reports of the March 13, 1999 Messier Marathon held in Molokai, Hawaii. Read her report and view pictures from this event.
• The Albuquerque Astronomical Society held its Messier Marathon Saturday night March 20, 1999 at the society's General Nathan Twining Observatory approximately 60 miles SSW of Albuquerque, NM. They had about 40 observers and of those 40, 7 managed to last the night. Kevin McKeown and Gordon Pegue did the best results by locating 108 objects each, both missing only M74 in the evening and M30 in the morning sky, 3 more folks scored 107, 106 and 101, respectively. For more detail read Gordon Pegue's report.
• Shawn & Jennifer Clark run their Messier Marathon in the night of 3/19-20/99 from Star Mountain, Texas (between Fort Davis and Balmorhea, Lat ~30deg 50', Long ~103deg 50') with a 8" SCT (Celestar 8 with 8x50 finder). They logged 107 Messier objects, missing only M72, M73, or M30 in the morning twilight. This was Jenny's first and Shawn's second Messier Marathon. Read their report for more detail.
• Amateur astronomers from the Peoria Astronomical Society observatory in rural Peoria County held the one-night Peoria Astronomical Society Messier Marathon on the evening of March 20 and morning of March 21, 1999. Two teams (one being Steve Thomas and the other consisted of John Barra and Tim Lester) each succeeded in locating 104 Messier objects; all missed M72, M73, M15, M2 and M30, while only Thomas could find M55 and Barra and Lester were able to see M75. Read John Barra's report, which has been used in their summer newletter already.
• Michael Lawson of Indianapolis did the Marathon in two sessions: From a site just south of Peru, Indiana, he started and nailed 52 objects in 3 hours, when frost ended his observing session. He finished the marathon in June, logging 108 objects of 109 he had looked for, only missing M83 from this northern location. Read his report.
• Nicolas Biver ran a Messier Marathon on March 14-15, 1999, logging 109 objects and missing only M30.
• The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) members achieved the following Messier Marathon 1999 results (thanks to Jon Stewart-Taylor for contributing):

    107  Craig Tupper
    104  Jerry Wolczanski
    103  Jon Stewart-Taylor
     92  Jonathan Bein
     78  Michael Mills
     74  Joe Colaccino
     25  David Bonnell
    

• Tom Hoffelder had wanted to do a Messier Marathon this year 1999 with his C14 but March weather didn't cooperate so he had to settle for a late run in April (4/11-12), from an observing place near Tulsa, OK. This time, he only got 103; missed M74, 77, 33, 31, 32 and 110 in the evening (because of the date) and M30 in the morning because the Moon was very near to it. To keep busy, he also observed as many NGC objects as possible which turned out to be 48, mostly edge-on galaxies. It was a busy and fun night and, as always, he used the Right Angle Sweep which involves no setting circles.

• An amateur group with Isaac Silver of the Florida Institute of Technology Astronomy/Astrophysics group attempted the Marathon on March 3/4, and succeeded in observing 106 objects at the Bull Creek observatory site in Central Florida. Clouds prevented two objects at the beginning of the night, and they were too early in the month for the last two objects.
• Dave Mitsky ran an Early March Messier Marathon on Friday, March 3rd from Naylor Observatory near Lewisberry, Pennsylvania. Using a 12.5" f/6.5 Cave Newtonian and a 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain at 64x to 270x magnification, he hunted down 79 Messier objects, finally running out of time for various reasons. Here is his observing report of this marathon session.
• Dave Mitsky also participated in a Messier Marathon on March 31-April 1, 2000 at Cherry Springs State Park, Potter County, PA, USA, together with four fellow observers (Gary Honis, Dave Barrett, "Stosh" and Wayne Natitus). He bagged 92 Messier objects with an 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube refractor and a 12.5" f/4.8 Starsplitter Compact Dobnewt in this session, plus a number of NGC and other deepsky objects. See his report!
• Ron Humphrey of Mitchell, Georgia (USA) did a Messier Marathon the night of March 5/6, 2000 from a site near Augusta, Georgia at lat 32.5 N and long 87.7 W. He got 106 of the 110 possible, missing only M30, M2, M73, and M75; he was at the position of M75 when morning twilight caught up with him. M2 and M30 were probably not possible at this early date and at 32.5 north latitude. Ron speculates that M75 might have been possible if he had started 2 or 3 minutes earlier. He eventually swept over position of M73, but time didnt permit changing to a higher magnification and refocusing. Ron used an 8 inch Newtonian f/4.5 on a dob mount.
• Timothy Geoghegan ran a Messier Marathon on 4/5 March 2000 from Denver, CO (lat 39deg40min) with an 8" Starhopper (no setting circles, no finderscope, no computers). He got 106 objects, all but Ms 72, 73, 55, and 30. See his report !
• Ed Kreminski ran his first Messier Marathon on the night of March 3-4 from the CAS dark-sky site (Lat. 39.7 N, Lon. 81.8 W) in Ohio. He used a Tele Vue-101 apo refractor on an Alt-Az mount and a "red-star" unity finder to point the scope. Using only star charts and thumbnail prints from the SEDS site for verification, he managed to observe 103 Messiers on his first Marathon. The sky was unusually transparent and the only problems were a wave of cirrus clouds that moved in just as he was starting on the Virgo region and the poor placement of the last few Messiers in the light of dawn. The clouds moved off after about an hour and he was able to continue until dawn. Ed was unable to observe M-55, M-75, M-15, M-2, M-72, M-73 and impossible M-30.
• Phillip Hosey and his friends Tom McGowan, Tom Danei, and Mark Crowler made their first Messier Marathon attempt on March 4 from a dark site in West Georgia. They used Tom's 16" and Phillip's 15" Dobsonian telescopes with a number of eyepieces, and bagged 106 objects. See Phillip's report for more detail.
• Len Bradley and Bob Havner ran a Messier Marathon from Gilroy, CA in the night of April 1st and 2nd, 2000. They saw 98 objects, missing Ms 74, 77, 31, 32, 110, 33, 76 (early in the evening, due to their location) and 72, 75, 73, 55, 30 (due to the sunrise, although 72, 75, and 73 were also missed due to location; they were behind a tree!). This was their first attempt at the marathon and they were very pleased to have been so successful. The night was quite beautiful and the temperature was mild. Read more about their session!
• On March 31/April 1 2000, Don Machholz only did a 2-hour evening session, but during this session, hunted down 63 Messier objects from Colfax, CA with his 6-inch Newtonian.
• Kevin Bays saw 106 Messier objects on 4/1-4/2/2000, missing Ms 32, 33, 74, and 110.
• Steven Dodder and Jim Deck of the Saguaro Astronomy Club completed a Messier Marathon on April 2, 2000 from Steven's Stone Haven Observatory, in Maricopa, AZ (Long 112:09 W, Lat 32:55 N). Steven used his C8 and Jim his 8" Dob. Due to evening clouds, they first missed M 31, 32, 110, 76, 52, 33 and 103 together with M74 and M77, but then ran through up to M30. In the second morning chance, Steven caught M31, 32, and 110, thus bagging 104, while Jim found M52 and M103 for a total of 102 objects. They also ran a successful all-planet marathon. See Steven's report! (or his own Messier Marathon 2000 results webpage)
• Michael Slaven, together with friends Alexander Macia, Leah Macia, his wife Kristina Olson, brother Chip Slaven, and son Lee Slaven of age 2 did a Messier Marathon on March 31-April 1, 2000 from Cabins, West Virginia (Long 79d 21.59' W, Lat 38d 57.68' N). They used a Celestron 8, an 80mm f/11 refractor, a 4.5" f/4 reflector, and 12 x 50 binoculars. In this first attempt, Michael managed to find 64 object, with his co-observers verifying the objects. See his report!
• Paul Littlecoyote of Big Bear City, CA did his first "solo" Messier Marathon on April 3-4, 2000 with a 20x80 binoculars, and found 106 objects, missing only M-74, M-77, M-76, and M-30. See his report.
• The Brevard Astronomical Society and the Kennedy Space Center Amateur Astronomers both held a joint event at their north site on the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. This Messier Marathon was conducted the weekend of 3/31 and 4/1 2000. Roy Uyematsu got 98 objects, as early morning Fog and some trees to the northwest prevented him from viewing more. Missed in the early evening were M74, M77, M31, M32, M33, M110 and M76. The early morning objects missed were M55, M2, M72, M73 and M30. Best view M11, M3, M5, and M17. Worst view M40 of course! Time to get through Virgo Cluster: 35 minutes!
• Bill Ferris had in mind to run a Messier Marathon on April 1, 2000 from a dark site near Flagstaff, AZ with his 10" Newtonian. After a rather successful 10x50 binocular twilight tour of galaxies, M74 escaped detection behind a hill, and made impossible his desire to go for all 110, so he gave up for this time. See his report.
• David Green participated in a Messier Marathon on April 1, 2000 at the L.A. Astronomical Society's Lockwood Valley observing site. Hills on the western horizon caused the loss of the first evening objects, but then he succeeded to bag 74 Messier objects until about 2:00 a.m., when he stopped. See his report!
• Dave Moses of Emyvale, Prince Edward Island, Canada, did his first Messier Marathon on April 1-2, 2000. Cloudy weather only permitted observing between 9 pm and midnight, and Dave succeeded to observe 64 Messier objects in these 3 hours. He also observed conspicuous Northern Lights that night. See his report.
• Andrew Cooper of the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association ran a Messier Marathon on April 4-5, 2000 from Empire Ranch near Tucson, AZ with his 6" RFT, and pushed his old record of 106 to 108 Messier objects, only missing M74 and M33 in the evening. Read his report!
• The Longmont Astronomical Society (Colorado) held it's 1st Annual Mighty Messier Marathon on Saturday night, 1 April 2000 at Pawnee National Grasslands in northeastern Colorado. Jim Sapp has written up and contributed a report for their newsletter. With his 12x50 binoculars and a 3.25 inch f/15 refractor he was able to bag 106 M.'s, missing only M74, M77, M75, and M30. The only other member of their party to go for the gusto, Dave Ewing, used an 8 inch f/6 Newtonian to bag 100 even.
• Allen Mayer participated in the Messier Marathon at the NOVAC club observing site, Crockett Park, Nokesville (VA); this was his first marathon. He used a 1981 C8 and a Short Tube 80. Under a sky with about 5 mag limiting magnitude and somewhat hazy conditions, he managed to hunt down 52 Messier objects before inmoving clouds ended this observing session at about 1 a.m., just after he had bagged the Virgo Cluster galaxies. See his report.
• J. Bein ran his Messier Marathon on March 5-6, 2000 (probably) from the Savage site of NOVAC, and was able to bag 104 Messier objects. See his report (2000 & 2001).
• Nicolas Biver ran a Messier Marathon on March 5, 2000 from Dillingham airfield, OAHU, Hawaii, and found all the 109 objects but M30, all which were possible at this date. See his timings.
• The Astronomy Club (TAC) held their annual Messier Marathon on April 1-2, 2000 at Henry Coe state park (near San Jose, Calif). Some low western horizon evening clouds prevented many to find some of the evening clouds. It was estimated that at least 50 telescopes took part in this star party; the number of marathoners was not determined. The following results were reported: Paul LeFevre used a 12.5-inch to find 107 objects, missing only M77, M74 and M33 in the evening and recovering M32 and M110 on his second morning chance - this was probably the (or one of the) best results in this marathon. Rich Neuschaefer used an an Astro-Physic 155mm f/7 (155EDFS) APO refractor and found 103 objects, missing M74, M77, M31, M32, M110, M33, and M30.
• Seven members took part in the Huachuca Astronomy Club (HAC)'s Messier Marathon on March 3-4, 2000 at Junk Bond Observatory near Sierra Vista, Arizona. Glenn Sanner and John Cassella achieved a score of 106 Messier objects (missing M2, M73, M72, and M30), while Dave Healy cheated by using his computer-slewed Celestron 14 to observe 109, all but M30. See Dave's report for details.
• Jeff Layfield from North Carolina ran a Messier Marathon with his 10" Meade LX 50 SCT, and was able to observe 71 Messier objects, using the guide from Sky & Telescope.
• The San Diego Astronomy Association held a Messier Marathon on April 1-2, 2000 at the TDS site. Their most successful marathoner, Rick Steiner, was able to search, locate, and identify 101 Messier objects. For more information see their Messier Marathon webpage.
• Girish Vaze, Swapneel Kore and Riyaz Amin from Mumbai, India attempted the Messier Marathon in April 2000 and were able to see 104 objects. They missed because these objects set with the sun.
• Denis M. Legault of the Ottawa Valley Astronomy and Observers Group (OAOG) undertook his first Messier Marathon on March 31st 2000 from his observing place in Ontario, Canada. He observed 105 objects missing M74, M77, M33, M55 and M30 due to clouds and a latitude of 45.5N.
• The All Arizona Messier Marathon 2000 was held in the night of April 1-2, 2000 at the Arizona City Site. Although weather forecast was not too optimistic, 22 people came to attend this event, and 16 telescopes were set up. Not completely unexpected, nobody could find M74. Best results were achieved by Paul Davidson (108, missing M33 also), Paul Lind (107) and Kevin Bays and Matt Spinelli (106 each). First-time marathoner Mark Stephenson bagged 104 and got place 5. A.J. Crayon, the coordinator of the Arizona Messier Marathons, has again contributed a great report and results from this event; thanks!

The first Messier Marathon of the new millennium, 2001 turned out to be a truely record breaking event!

• Jonathan A. Bein undertook a Messier Marathon from NOVAC's Savage site in the night of March 19-20, 2001. He used a scope with Telrad finder and binoculars. He got all evening objects, but in the morning about 3:00 am the waning Moon crescent made observing difficult. He ended up in a personal record, scoring 107 Messier objects and having missed M55, M75, and M30. See his report.
  On March 22-23, 2001 Jonathan A. Bein, together with Craig Tupper, undertook another Messier Marathon from a site in the George Washington National Forest, 38degrees 39.9' N latitude, 79.5 W longitude. Missing four objects in the evening (M74, 77, 33, ), they ended up with 106 of 110 when they finally bagged M30 after 5:00 a.m. See Jonathan's report.
  On March 26-27, 2001, Craig Tupper and Jonathan Bein endeavoured a third and final Messier Marathon 2001, this time from the side of Mt. Weather rd. near Heart Trouble La, and the Savage site of NOVAC. This time, they bagged up everything but M30, thus scored 109 of 110. Jonathan again provided a report!
• The Altrincham and District Astronomical Society (Manchester, UK) attempted their first Messier Marathon on Sunday 18th March, from 53deg Northern latitude. Paul Clark reports that he succeeded in observing 101 objects, missing M7, 30, 54, 55, 69, 70, 72, 73 and 75. See his short report, and read his more comprehensive online report!
• Kirk Alexander and Jack Gelfand of Princeton, New Jersey had two successful Messier Marathons from Arizona, each of them scoring fully with 110 of 110 objects! All this happened around the premier Marathon weekend, March 22-25, 2001. The first night, March 22-23, 2001, they were at the Chiricahua National Monument near Wilcox, and on Saturday March 24 to Sunday March 25, they participated in the 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon near Arizona City. Kirk has put their observing report online.
• Kirk Alexander also reports that a small team of people in Princeton, New Jersey did a Messier Marathon on March 23-24, using the recently rennovated 36" scope and a small 4" scope to locate 108 objects. Given the light pollution, that was a major accomplishment even for a 36"!
• For the second year in a row, Ed Kreminski ran a Messier Marathon from the CAS (Columbus Astronomical Society) dark sky site near Zanesville, Ohio USA. Ed managed to observe 102 Messier objects on the evening of 22-23 March 2001 using only an Alt-Az mounted 4" Apo-refractor and starcharts. This year's obstacles to getting all 110 Messiers included two stray cows wandering around the telescope field and clouds that blanketed the sky after 4am. Misses included the last eight Messiers: M54, M55, M75, M15, M2, M72, M73 and M30.
  Poor weather conditions over central Ohio forced the cancellation of the CAS Messier Marathon on Saturday, 24 March, 2001.
• March 23-24, 2001: Bill Ferris, being a day early and practising for the 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon, from the Arizona City site, logged all 110 Messier objects alrready during this "exercising" session. It happened that he also succeeded during the All Arizona Messier Marathon, thus becoming the first person to run two fully successful Messier Marathons in two successive nights! Read his report!
• Dave Mitsky of Harrisburg, PA attempted a Messier Marathon on Friday March 23 from a dark site in a state forest tract an hour north of Harrisburg. With his Orion ShortTube 80 and Celestron 20x80 binoculars, he withstood cold and partly cloudy weather and finally logged about 60 Messier objects after about 8 hours. Also observed Jupiter, the Double Cluster, Stock 2, Melotte 111, Collinder 399, Mars, a number of binary stars and saw several satellites through the eyepiece. See his report!
• Ken Mallard of North Carolina did his first Messier Marathon on March 23-24, 2001, but "cheated" by using his Meade LX200 w/ computer to find the objects; he found 102 Messier objects. See his report.
• The First Yugoslavian Messier Marathon was held at the night of March 23-24, 2001, at the Letenka youth summer camp, ( Lon: 19 d.41' E, Lat.: 45 d.08' N ) Fruska Gora Hills, 400 meters above sea level, 15 km south-west from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. 15 teams of 2, from various Yugoslavian cities, attempted a promotional competition, but due to bad weather conditions See Dragan Miladinovic's report.
• The Ohio Valley Astronomical Society had their 2001 Messier Marathon on March 23-24 from a dark site near Huntington, Ohio. Each of the five participants provided a personal Messier Marathon report, but you can link all from the OVAS' Messier Marathon page: Dave Tolley (TV-101; 103 objects); Rodger Blake (20" Obsession; 95 objects); Larry Oyster (C8, 70mm bino; 29); Don Kemper (10" Cave Reflector; over 20); Jeff Ball (AP 130 EDT; photographed M65/66 and M13 - thus 3 objects)
• David Neal Minnick of Lake Elsinore, CA did his first Messier Marathon on March 23-24, 2001, from the Kofa Wildlife Refuge, AZ, using his C14/G11 (but no DSC's, no Gemini). He used Harrington's order-of-battle. M74 escaped before he could identify it, but otherwise, a clean sweep: He succeeded in finding 109 Messier objects (5866 as 102).
• Paul Gray of Fredericton, NB, Canada, and member of the Halifax Centre of the RASC, did a marathon with the Delmarva Stargazers on Marylands Eastern shore on March 23/24, 2001 from Tuckahoe State Park (eastern shore of Maryland, USA, one hour's drive from Washington, DC). He attemepted his 5th marathon at a much lower latitude than any before and in a slightly warmer forgiving climate! He found 109 Messiers with hid 12.5-inch f/5 Discovery truss dobsonian, missing only M30. Read his report!
• Arto Oksanen and Harri Hyvönen of the Nyrola Observatory held their first CCD Messier Marathon on March 24/25, 2001 from their location in Finland, at 62.5N latitude, and could image 82 objects from 83 possible at this latitude. See their results on the web.
• Robert Martin undertook his second Messier Marathon (after 1999) on March 24-25, 2001 from Joshua Tree, CA, with his Meade 10" LX-50. Arriving late, he missed 6 evening objects (M77, M74, M33, M31, M32, M110) but found all other 104 Messier objects. Read his report!
• Phil Harrington undertook a Messier Marathon on March 24/25, 2001, using 10x50 and 16x70 binoculars. The early evening was lost due to persistent clouds and showers. Sky finally cleared around 9 PM, so evening rush-hour objects were lost. Phil started his hunt at the Southold, NY site, but clouds came back around 1 AM. So he returned home, where it was clear, and continued as best he could from my somewhat limited backyard. Missed morning rush-hour objects due to poor ESE horizon.
• Russ Pinizzotto tried a Messier Marathon on 24-25 March 2001 from Maryville, MO, using his 20 x 80 Celestron binoculars on a Virgo mount. He couldn't see M77 at the start of the evening, but it went very well from there. He found all of the objects he was searching for until it completely clouded over at 4:30 am. He missed all of the late objects: M70, M55, M75, M15, M2, M72, M73 and M30, and ended up seeing 101, so at least was able to break 100. Read his report!
• The Peoria Astronomical Society conducted its 2001 Messier Marathon on March 24-25, 2001. After a good start, clouds came up and eventually, snow ended this event at about 2:30; best results were obtained by Tim Lester (75) and John Barra (74). Read John Barra's report, or the PAS' online report.
• Mark Hansen did his first Messier Marathon on March 26, 2001 from the Greenville, MI area, with a 16" f4 Dobsonian, with 27mm Panoptic and Parracor. He bagged 101 Messier objects in this attempt.
• Douglas Rudd reports that cloud cover prohibited the 2001 Des Moines Astronomical Society Messier Marathon scheduled for March 24-25 at Ashton Observatory near Baxter, Iowa. However, on Monday March 26, sky was clear and he ran a successful Messier Marathon from Ashton Observatory, Iowa. With his 114mm f/8 Newtonian and the Observatory's 16" f/4.5 Newtonian, he was succesful in finding 104 Messier objects, missing only M77, M74 and M33 in the evening and M55, M2, and M30 in the morning (basically trees). Read his report!
• Don Machholz attempted a Messier Marathon from near Josua Tree, CA with his 6-inch Newtonian, on March 25/26, 2001, but after finding 88 objects, clouds ended his session. The following night, March 26/27, 2001, for the first time after 22 years, long-term Messier Marathoner Don Machholz successfully hunted down all 110 Messier Objects! Congratulations!
• Brent Archinal has compiled a collection of Messier Marathon 2001 reports by members of the Northern Virgina Astronomy Club (NOVAC) which is available online on their website. More info is available on their Messier Marathon Resource page.
• The first Iranian Messier Marathon as held at " Kavir" national park on April 19 to 20, 2001. About 40 people attended. See the report by Babak A.Tafreshi and Oshin D.Zakarian (Nojum magazine).
• Jan Wisniewski of the RASC Kingston Centre undertook his first Messier Marathon on March 30/31, 2000 from Gould Lake Conservation Area, Ontario, Canada. Using his 6-inch f/4 homemade Dobsonian together with a 10x50 binoculars, he successfully hunted down 106 Messier Objects, missing M74 and M77 in the evening and M30 in the morning twilight, as well as M55 which was hiding behind trees. Read his report!
• The 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon was held on March 24-25, 2001, once more at the Arizona City Site. This event turned out to be the most successful to date, attended by about 91 folks, 79 scopes, a comparable number of vehicles, coming together from all the US and even Canada, certainly many from Arizona. The score was a new record: 25 observers found all 110 Messier objects! 20 others also found more than 100, and 11 more recorded their observations of fewer objects. A.J. Crayon, the coordinator of the Arizona Messier Marathons, of the Phoenix based Saguaro Astronomy Club, and first time personally bagging all 110, has again contributed a great report and the results from this event; thanks and congratulations to him and all participants! Notably, after this event, there are now 5 persons who have succeeded twice with a full 110-score Messier Marathon: David Fredericksen (after 1996), Bob Davidson (after 1998), Kirk Alexander and Jack Gelfand after their success two days earlier, and Bill Ferris who is the first to succeed twice in two successive nights!
  Rick Tejera (who scored 106) contributed his article for the SAC Newsletter. Bill Ferris contributed his report on his double success. Brent A. Archinal contributed his full-success report.

• Ken Mallard has run his 2002 Messier Marathon in the night of March 7-8, 2002, only with his 20x80 binoculars and star atlas. He finally bagged 81 Messier objects, missing e.g. 5 objects in the evening because of local light polution, couldn't identify M57 because of that object's smallness. See his report!
• Due to unexpected good observing conditions, Klaus Schulze-Frerichs did his 3rd "Mosborn Messier Marathon" on March 10/11, 2002. Using his Steiner 15x80 mm binoculars only, he was able to find all objects except those (as expected) rising during dawn (M30, M54, M55, M69, M70, M72, M73, M75) and got an excellent and satisfying number of 102. Read his report!
• Girish Vaze, Swapneel Kore and Riyaz Amin from Mumbai, India attempted their 2002 Messier Marathon on March 15, 2002 from Sinhagad (73.1 deg E, 18.4 deg N, elevation 1290 m), a 1000 year old fort, 30 km south of the city of Pune. Using their custom built 13.1 inch f/4.7 reflector, they successfully bagged 106 Messier objects, missing only M74, M32, and M110 in the evening, and M30 in the morning. In addition, they observed some non-Messier objects such as Omega Centauri, Eta-Carinae and NGC 5128 as well as quite a few NGC galaxies in Leo and Virgo. See Swapneel Kore's report!
• Paul Hart completed his first Messier Marathon on March 17, 2002 at Custer Institute Southold, New York, on the eastern tip of Long Island, using a 10 inch Newtonian, and 15 x 70 binoculars. He missed only 4 of the evening objects (M32, M33, M74 and M77), and bagged 87 objects before early morning clouds ended his marathon at 4:55 a.m. In addition, he saw comet Ikeya-Zhang in the evening. See Paul's report!
• Gerard Gendron undertook his first Messier Marathon in the night of March 16-17, 2002 from his club's (SAPM, Montreal) observing site in Hemmingford, Quebec, Canada, 40 miles south of Montreal. As he could start late only, he missed M77-74-79-33-31-32 and 110 in the evening, didn't identify M88 and 91 in the Virgo Cluster, and bagged 77 Messier objects before dawn brightened the sky and ended his marathon session. See his report!
• Russell Pinizzotto tried his fourth Messier Marathon from Maryville, MO on March 17-18, 2002, and logged 83 objects using 20 x 80 Celestron binoculars. Evening haze and morning fog made this marathon session difficult. Russell missed M77 and M74 in the early evening, and the sky clouded over at about 4:15 am. See his report!
• Denis M. Legault of the Ottawa Valley Astronomy and Observers Group (OAOG) did his 2002 Messier Marathon - his second marathon after that of 2000 - on March 16-17, 2002 from a small town about 30 miles Southwest of Ottawa, Ontario Canada (45.5 N, 75.5 W). Under good weather conditions he was successful in finding all 108 Messier objects that are possible at this date and from this location: M30 and M55 are impossible under these conditions. He used his 14" PDHQ Discovery dobsonian with a Telrad, the Sky Atlas 2000, Uranometria 2000 and his Messier Marathon schedule list. Read his report!
• Matthias Juchert and Serina Filler did their first Messier Marathon on March 10-11, 2002 from a good place in Kaernten/Austria, using their new 8" f/6 Meade Starfinder EQ and a 10x70 Fujinon. Under considerably good conditions, they observed 100 Messier objects, as well as many other deepsky objects, a total number of over 130. Read Matthias' short announce and his detailed online report (German-language with some English remarks)!
• Tom Hoffelder decided to do two Messier Marathons in 2002, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Messier Marathons. The first was on March 16/17 and was done with an 8" f/6 Newtonian from his front yard in Tolland, CT. Tom found 104, missing the morning southeast low stuff due to horizon/location. His second marathon took place in the night of April 6/7 at Arunah Hill in Massachusetts. With a Celestron C14, he got 103, missing the western evening galaxies and M30. Temp was about 15. This was Tom's 10th Messier Marathon in 25 years!
• Ed Kreminski finished a Messier Marathon on the evening of 10/11 April 2002 spotting 106 Messier objects. The same set-up was used at the same location for the third year in a row. The location was a dark sky site in east central Ohio. The seeing and transparency were only fair throughout the night. The telescope was an Alt-Az mounted TV-101 4" apo-refractor with a red-dot pointing device. Star charts were used to determine the location of the objects.
  Messier objects misses included early evening objects M74, M77, M33 and late morning object M30. M31 was spotted in evening twilight but M32 and M110 had to wait until M31/32/110 reappeared in the morning sky. Comet C/2002 C1 Ikeya-Zhang was seen at sunset and again in the morning. The comet shone brightly at magnitude 3.5 and sported a tail extending over 4 degrees during it's morning reappearance. Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter formed a spectacular line in the western sky at sunset. The double form of the ISS Alpha with docked Shuttle Atlantis was easily visible at low power in the scope at 01:06UT. A handful of bright blue-green meteors between 6-8UT rounded out the wonderful evening.
• The Wayne County Astronomical Society of Wooster, Ohio held a Messier Marathon on March 24-25, 2002. The 5 participating observers (plus one scor-ekeeper) were netting 58 objects before things iced over. See their Observing Log!
• The Sheffield Astronomical Society carried out a Messier Marathon on the night of the Full Moon - March 29/30, earlier nights had been affected by the weather. The equipment used consisted of an alt-az mounted 10" LX200 and two CCD cameras all controlled remotely from an old World War II bunker which provided some refuge from the weather. Despite the Moon and patchy mist 71 objects were successfully imaged in what may be the first imaging attempt made in the UK - unless someone knows better. See their online report (by Kevin Deakes, VP Sheffield Astronomical Society)
• For the second Messier Marathon in Iran as many as 50 amateurs form different cities gathered on April 11/12, 2002 in the Semnan desert, but it rained out unfortunately. They are thinking now for the next year, and a possible plan for Messier plus Marathon in September. Thanks to Babak Tafreshi for the note!
• Jeff Tibb of the Oklahoma City Astronomy Club was able to complete two full Messier Marathons this year. This was done despite trouble with rain and cloud cover. The first one on March 9th/10th was very cold but he recorded 91 Messier objects that night. The second one was the night of April 13th/14th and although the dew was heavy he recorded 99 Messier objects that night. Read his report!
• The San Jose Astronomical Association held their 2002 Messier Marathon (SJAA Don Machholz Messier Marathon) on April 13, 2002 at Coe Park with more than a dozen telescopes. That date, clouds and trees prevented them from viewing several of the evening objects, and at 1:30 am, clouds stopped the endeavor. Participants Paul and Mary Kohlmiller claimed 68 objects; read their online report!
• Jane and Morris Jones run their 2002 Messier Marathon in segments, with their newly acquired used Astro-Physics f/9 AP180EDT. They observed the first 48 Messier objects on March 14, 2002 from MacDonald Observatory, TX - had to stop because of clouds and a dead battery - the next 13 objects on April 7, 2002 from Lake Sonoma, CA, and the final 49 objects on May 12, 2002. On that day, they also did a nineplanet marathon! Read Jane's report!
• Don Machholz observed 109 Messier objects (all but M30) in a Messier Marathon on March 17/18, 2002 from Colfax, CA with his 6-inch Newtonian.
• Jan Wisniewski of the RASC Kingston Centre did his second Messier Marathon on March 16/17, 2002 together with Doug Angle and Fred Barret from Fred's dark observing place near Maberty, Ontario, Canada. Jan used his 6-inch f/4 Dobsonian, while Fred used his 8-inch f/10 SCT and Doug his 4-inch f/4 refractor. Getting all eveing objects in a good start, Jan hunted down all 106 objects up to M75, and only lost M55, M72, M73, M30 in the morning twilight. Read his report!
• The 2002 All Arizona Messier Marathon was held on April 13-14, 2002 at the Arizona City Site, organized by A.J. Crayon and Jack Jones of the Saguaro Astronomy Club. Although this time it was only possible to observe 107 Messier objects because of the date, there were counted 84 people, 75 scopes and 66 vehicles attending. 8 observers managed to bag the highest possible score of 107 Messier objects (missing impossible M33, 74 and 77), and another five bagged more than 102 objects. Again, A.J. Crayon has contributed a great report and the results of this event (thanks!) - the 14th success in a series of SAC and Arizona Messier Marathons since 1981.

• At the perhaps somewhat unusual date and season of October 29/30, 2002, Don Machholz undertook another Messier Marathon from Dutch Flat / Colfax CA. With a 6-inch reflector, and despite a 36% moon in the morning sky, he hunted down 106 Messier objects, missing M4, M104, M68 and M83.

• Wolfgang Howurek did his first Messier Marathon in the night of February 28 - March 1, 2003 from Ebenwaldhöhe, Lower Austria, and was able to observe 96 Messier objects with a 5.7" f/6 Maksutov-Newtonian. Read his report!
  On March 29, he tried a second run but gave up because of bad sky conditions.
• Swapneel Kore and Girish Vaze from Mumbai, India attempted their 2003 Messier marathon in the night of March 9-10. They managed to bag all 110 objects from Jawhar, India (around 200 km from Mumbai), with a 6 day old moon, which caused no difficulty for their custom built 13" telescope; cordial congratulations for this great success! This was their third year at attempting the Messier marathon and we thoroughly enjoyed it! Read their report!
• Khagol Mandal organized a Messier Marathon on India which was run on March 12/13, 2003. 5 observers shared a 5" f/10 Newtonian telescope and achieved the following results: Hrishikesh Joglekar: 103, Sameer Thakur: 102, Anurag Shevde: 100, Shailesh Sansare: 100, and Nilesh Desai: 93.
• The Ohio Valley Astronomical Society held their Messier Marathon 2003 on 18-19 March, 2003; four members attended. Results were: Dave Tolley, over 80 objects, Don Kemper, 98 objects, Rodger Blake, 102 objects, and Jeff Ball, some images. Read Rodger Blake's report!
• On March 22/23, the Sheffield Astronomical Society once again attempted to image as many of the 100 Messier objects accessible that night using an LX200 and Starlight Xpress CCD camera. With very good weather conditions 98 Messier objects were captured, improving substantially on last year's effort of 71. A report on the event can be found online.
• Amateurs from Kiev, Ukraine ran a Messier Marathon on March 28/29, 2003 from a site near Kiev, at 50.30 deg Northern latitude. Leonid Tkachuk, Kostya Samoylenko and Tibor Tompa used a 20-cm Ritchie-Cretien, a 15-cm and an 11.4-cm Newtonian to finally observe 84 Messier Objects that night. See Tibor Tompa's report!
• Jane Houston Jones run her Messier Marathon 2003 on March 28-29 and successfully found 106 Messier objects, missing M77 in the evening and M72, M73 and M30 in the morning. She used a 17.5-inch f/4.5 as well as an 80-mm reflector. Read her report!
• Michael T. Clancy, who calls himself a 45 year old novice (only had his 4.5" newtonian scope 14 months!), attended his first Messier Marathon on March 28-29, 2003, as a member of the Saskatoon chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, sponsor of the marathon. Due to extraordinarily bright aurorae that night, they fared rather poorly, although he did log 50 messiers, of which 24 were new to him. The next night (29 Mar 03) the weather deteriorated and no second attempt was made. Better luck next year!
• Don Machholz attempted his 2003 Messier Marathon from Colfax, CA on March 29-30, 2003, and hunted down 108 Messier objects. M72 and M73 were clouded out at his site. This time, he hunted down all the objects from memory without using any maps, charts or lists, being the first reported marathoner to ever hunt down so many objects from memory and thus having a successful "M cubed" or "Messier Memory Marathon". Congratulations for this big success! Read his report!
• Jeff Tibb did his 2003 Messier Marathon on March 29-30 from Oklahoma with his 10-inch f/6 Dobsonian. He observed 107 objects missing only M74, M77 and M30. Read Jeff's report!
• The Sirius Lookers, Sedona Astronomy Club held their Messier Marathon on March 29, 2003 at their Two Trees site in Coconino National Forrest south of Sedona (Arizona). About 25 observers were present, but only few wanted to attempt the marathon. Padraig Houlahan of Flagstaff's CAS managed to get all 109 Messier Objects (missing M110 due to confusion with the M102 controversy) with a 10" Dobsonian. Adam Bloomer of Phoenix got 103, while the rest found about 20 to 50 objects. Read Thom Walczak's report!
• The TUVA Astronomy Club had a great night of marathoning at the TUVA Observatory outside of Council Hill, Oklahoma on Saturday March 29, 2003. About 15-20 observers from both the TUVA Astronomy Club and the Astronomy Club of Tulsa attended. Best results were achieved by Rod Gallagher who hunted down 104 Messier objects, David Stine ended with 88. See David Stine's report and his Astro Corner monthly report on this marathon (April 2003). Also look at Gerald R. Miller's images of the event.
• Craig Colvin undertook his first Messier Marathon on March 29-30, 2003 from Henry Coe state park with an Orion XT 10 dobsonian. In a great observing night, his final result was 106 Messier objects; missing ones were M77, M74, M33, and M30. It was his first time observation of 34 of the Messiers. And most important, he had a great time! Read his report!
• Eugene C. Dolphin did his Messier Marathon on March 29-30, 2003 from the SDAA site, Tierra del Sol, CA. Using P. Harrington's guide, he observed 102 Messier Objects with his 13.1-inch Odyssey. He writes he learned two lessons this time:
  (1) have printouts of sunset and sunrise objects handy,
  (2) do the Marathon earlier in month when the night is longer.
• Jan Wisniewski of the RASC Kingston Centre undertook a Messier Marathon in the night of March 31/April 1, 2003, together with Doug Angle and Fred Barret from a dark site near Maberty, Ontario, Canada (Fred's property). Jan brought his 20-inch f/4 Dobsonian, while Fred used his 8-inch SCT. Due to late season and some bolders on the horizon, M74 and M77 got lost in the evening, as did M33 and M110. The marathon finally ended at about 4 a.m. as haze came up and prevented further observing; Jan had successfully hunted down 97 Messier Objects by that time. Read his report!
• The Peoria Astronomical Society held it's annual Messier Marathon on March 31 - April 1, 2003 at their Decker-Grebner-VanZant Observatory west of Peoria. Of six members who started the marathon, only two survived to the morning. John Barra observed 106 objects, missing M74 in the evening and M2, M30 and M55 in the morning, while Tim McGrath found 102. See John Barra's report!
• The astronomy club in Pune, India held their 2003 Messier Marathon on March 31 - April 1, 2003. Harshad Abhyankar succeeded in observing 99 Messier objects.
• The COAA Algarve Observatory, Portugal had a successful Messier Marathon on April 1/2, 2003. Leading observer George Gilbart-Smith, assisted by John Harris, Ian Braithwaite and Bev Ewen-Smith of COAA succeeded in observing all 110 Mesier objects; congratulations! This time, they decided to include NGC 5866 for M102, to achieve the full lot of 110. See Bev Ewen-Smith's report!
• Russell Pinizzotto ran his 2003 Messier Marathon in the night of April 1-2, 2003 at the new Bearcat Observatory of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO. He mainly used his Celestron 20 x 80 binoculars on a Virgo mount, augmented by 7 x 50 binoculars and his Criterion RV-6. Helps were Astro Cards and his own modified sequence. He finally found 107 Messier Objects, missing only M74, M77 and M30. See his report!
• The Winston-Salem Astronomical League held its First Annual Messier Marathon on the night of 1/2 April 2003 at the Wake Forest University Lodge, a private facility on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia at 3,000 feet elevation. The participating members achieved the following results: Steve Childers (10" Dob), 100 Messier Objects, Robert Thompson (10" Dob), 108 (missing M74 and M30), and Paul Jones (8" SCT), all 110, congratulations! Further detail can be found in Robert Thompson's report. Robert remarks that Steve's 100 is perhaps the most remarkable result, as in his fresh career in amateur astronomy, this was his first major application of the star-hop technique, and he had only observed about a dozen or two of the Messier objects at all previously.
• Ed Kreminski used his 4" TV-101 apo-refractor to star-hop to 108 Messier objects on the evening of April 2/3, 2003. This was from the same dark sky site in Ohio for the fourth year in a row. M74 and perennially pesky M30 were the two missed objects. Highlights of the evening included seeing the glow of the Gegenschein, Jupiter floating near sparkling M44 and Saturn shining near wispy M1.
• The 2003 All Arizona Messier Marathon was held in the night of March 29-30, 2003, once more at the Arizona City Site, and again organized by A.J. Crayon and Jack Jones of the Saguaro Astronomy Club. Approximately 80 vehicles attended, and 56 participants returned results lists. Due to season and bright zodiacal light, M74 was the most difficult object to observe this year. Nevertheless, no less than 14 marathoners succeeded in observing all 110 Messier objects! Congratulations! 12 more participants managed to hunt down 109 objects, five others got 108, three each observed 107 and 106, and five more got at least 100, so a total of 42 observers who achieved at least a 100-object score. Notably, Dawn Schur became the first lady find the full 110 objects on her own, and Bob Davidson and David Fredericksen had their third full success. A.J. Crayon has contributed a great report and results of this 15th successful Arizona Messier Marathon, thanks!
• Tom Hoffelder and Dick Parker, members of the Astronomical Society of Greater Hartford, tried the Messier Marathon two times in late March, 2003 but were clouded out around 1 A.M. both times. At the late date of April 24/25, they eventually succeeded from Tolland, CT, Tom with his C14 and Dick with his 12.5" f/5 reflector. Because of the late date, they missed M74, 77, 79, 33 and 34 in the evening, but recovered the equally-missed M76, M31, M32 and M110 in the morning. Then clouds prevented them from finding M30 and M55 in the morning, and they ended up with a respectable score of 103 observed Messier Objects. Read Tom's report!
• Don Machholz attempted another Messier Marathon at an unusual date: On October 29/30, 2003, he hunted down 105 Messier Objects from Dutch Flat / Colfax, CA with a 6" reflector, missing only M4, M61, M104, M68 and M83.

• The 2004 All Arizona Messier Marathon was held in the night of March 20-21, 2004, once more at the Arizona City Site, and again organized by A.J. Crayon and Jack Jones of the Saguaro Astronomy Club. A.J. Crayon has contributed not only the results of this 16th successful Arizona Messier Marathon, but also a great report about the happening. Thank you so much!
• Amateurs from the Ukraine ran a Messier Marathon on April 17/18, 2004 from Makalevichi, Gitomir region, at 50.69 deg Northern latitude. Leonid Tkachook used an homemade 6'' Newton xif/6.3 Azimut mount. He observed 100 Messier Objects that night. See Leonid Tkachook's report!
• Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune (India's Oldest Amature Astronomers' Association; also known as JVP by the amateur astronomers in India) held its Annual Messier Marathon on 20/21 March 2004 at the Tamhini, 65 km from Pune city. 6 participating members achieved the following results: Sagar Gokhale: 104, Harshad Abhyankar: 104, Nilima Thatte: about 100, Nikhil Belsare: 93 (first time observed), Indrajit Nanda: 70 (first time observed), and Parimal Dave: 50 (had to leave the marathon due to not feeling well). Thanks to Sagar Gokhale for reporting!
• The Winston-Salem Astronomical League held its Second Annual Messier Marathon on the night of 19/20 March 2003 at the Wake Forest University Lodge, a private facility on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Fancy Gap, Virginia at 3,000 feet elevation. Two of the five members present tried the Messier Marathon: Steve Childers and Sean Childers (father and son) each observed 109 Messier objects with their home-built 17.5-inch Dobsonian and a borrowed 10-inch Dob, missing only M30. Read Robert Thompson's great report!
• Paul Hart of Stony Brook, New York did the 2004 Messier Marathon on the night of March 22-23, 2004 on eastern Long Island at Custer Institute on Southold, New York and finished with 99 objects. He used a home made 10" dobsonian and 15 x 70 Binoculars. Missed M32, M33, M74 and M77 in the early evening, got all the objects until the morning rush, and missed M55, 75, 15, 2, 72, 73 and 30. Read his report!
• The Hilo Astronomy Club attempted their first Messier Marathon on the evenings of March 19 & 20 from the 9,300 foot level of Mauna Kea. After a good, but windy, start on Friday night the weather closed in and prevented any further attempts. A similar attempt by the University of Hawaii at Hilo Astronomy Club on Saturday night also failed. Two members of the Hilo Astronomy Club report formal results: Michael Connelley - 63 objects (12.5" Dob), Dave Brennen - 64 objects (11" Celestron NexStar GPS). Read Dave Brennen's report!
• Paul Clark successfully observed all 110 Messier objects in the night of March 19/20, 2004 from a site 2000m from the slopes of Mt. Tiede in the Canary Islands with his home-built 10" truss tube dobsonian. Congratulations! Read his report!
• Amateurs of the Cornell Astronomical Society from Cornell University, Ithaka, NY attempted their first Messier Marathon on March 22/23, 2004 from Fuertes Observatory at Cornell University. Using a 12-inch f/15 refractor and 15x80 binoculars, they managed to find a total of 94 Messier objects before clouds came up at about 4:00 am and ended this event. Read Jagadheep D. Pandian's report!
• The TUVA Astronomy Club in Council Hill, Oklahoma had a very successful Messier Marathon this year the night and morning of March 20-21, 2004. "Champ" Rod Gallaghar achieved the highest score of 101 Messier objects, and the six other participants looked up up to 49. Read David Stine's report!
• Herbert Gubo run his 2004 Messier Marathon on March 17-18, 2004 from the Public Observatory of the Astronomische Gesellschaft Buchloe, Germany. With his 12.5" f/5 Dobsonian (Discovery PDHQ 12.5), he successfully observed 101 Messier objects, missing M74, M33, M74, M70, M55, M75, M30, M72, and M73. This was the best night of this week in Herbert's location, despite several minor disturbations from third-party lights and weather. Read his report!
• The Sirius Lookers of Sedona, AZ had their Messier Marathon on March 20/21, 2004 from a site between Cottonwood and Sedona, AZ. About 20 amateurs attended, but clouds prevented a event so that only one marathoner, Milt Wilcox, continued to the morning and eventually found 101 objects with his 8" Newtonian and 18x50 binoculars. Read his report!
• The Southwest Florida Astronomical Society had their 2004 Messier Marathon near Miami, FL. Messier Marathon coordinator Frank J Mraz caught 109 Messier objects, missing only M30 which was eaten up by Miami lights and fog. Joseph Cambala found 107 objects, missing only M72, M73, and M30.
• Don Machholz undertook two Messier Marathons this year, both from Red Cloud Rd. near Joshua Tree Park in southern California. He was accompanied by George Robinson of Auburn, and in the first night by Jane Houston Jones and Morris "Mojo" Jones. In both events, he tried to hunt down the objects from memory only, starting with a blank sheet of paper, and writing down each object he found. He used his 6" reflector, while George had a 10", Mojo a 14", and Jane a 12", all reflectors. On March 24/25, 2004, Don found 108 Messier Objects, missing M74 and M30. On March 25/26, 2004, he successfully hunted down all 110 Messier Objects from memory only! Moreover, he saw all 9 planets in that night! Congratulations! Read his report!
  George Robinson located 107 Messier Objects and all nine planets during the second night (March 25/26).
  Jane Hoston Jones reports that during the first night (March 24/25), she found 109 objects, missing only M30, and all nine planets. Read her report!

• Mike Connelley of the HIlo Astronomy Club undertook his second Messier Marathon on March 5-6, 2005 from the 9,300 ft. level of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Using a 12.5" f/6 dobsonian with 31mm Nagler eyepiece, he succeeded in observing 108 Messier objects, missing only M52 in the morning and M30 at sunrise. Read his report!
• Jon Zander ran his first personal Messier Marathon observing from Lunar Crater National Natural Landmark at 38:22:48.14 N, 116:03:53.94 W in central Nevada, USA, on March 11th/12th, 2005. As this was his first attempt at the Marathon, he thought he would give it a try after completing the Astronomical League's Binocular Messier Club/Phil Harrington's Star Watch in 2004. He observed 105 objects, missing M55, 75, 72, 73, and 30 due to the sunrise--those 'missing' later observed in June 2005. Jon used a modified Meade 12.5" f/4.8 Starfinder dobsonian.
• SWAP - Sky Watchers Association of Pune (India) members conducted their 2005 Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005, from two locations: Buttewadi and Girawali, 50 km and 90 km north of Pune (India) respectively. Many of the participants were doing "en masse" deep sky hunting for the first time. Winner Harshad Abhyankar successfully observed 109 Messier Objects, missing only M30 in the morning. He also reported 40 NGC objects, thus again missing by one his personal goal to observe 150 objects. Read Harshad Abhyankar's report! Anyway, congratulations from here!
• The Treasure Coast Astronomical Society (TCAS), Florida held its first annual Messier Marathon at the Kissimmee Prairie Perserve State Park, Kissimmee, Florida, on March 11-12, 2005. Marathoner Sue Prill found 52 Messier Objects, while David Brown and Patty Mayer observed a total of 58 in their very first Messier Marathon. Read their report!
• Mike Luckow of the Boulder Astronomy and Space Society (BASS) in Boulder, Colorado, attempted a first Messier Marathon at Cactus Flats North, about 35 miles east of Fort Collins, Colorado, on March 11-12, 2005, with Jim Adams and Dr. Shane Rea. Using a 12. Meade LX200GPS, they succeeded in viewing 106 of the Messier Objects, missing only M74, M72, M30, and M102 (which they reject and didn't look for). You can read his report!
• The Astronomy Club of Tulsa and the TUVA Astronomy Club held their 2005 Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005 at TUVA Observatory, Council Hill, Oklahoma. Champion of this marathon turned out to be (again) Rod Gallagher who observed 105 Messier Objects, followed by David Stine (100, his best-ever), Tom McDonough (90; his first marathon), and Steve Chapman (86; his best). David Stine reports that TUVA member Neta Apple, unable to attend that event, run her own Messier Marathon and achieved a score of 83. See some photos of this event by Steve Chapman, and Read David Stine's report!
• Fred Rains of the Birmingham Astronomical Society of Birmingham, Alabama attempted his 2005 Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005 from the BAS' club site on Chandler Mountain approximately 50 miles northeast of the city. Using a Celestron G9.25, he succeeded in hunting down 85 Messier Objects in this his first Messier Marathon. Read his report!
• The Astronomical Society of Las Cruces, New Mexico, held its second Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005 at its Upham observing site. They were joined by several members of the El Paso Astronomy Club. The night started out windy, but was calm by midnight with just a few small scattered clouds. Five marathoners finished the night. Steve Barkes and Joseph Mancilla bagged 109 (all but M30) with their homemade 8" Dobs. Steve Smith and Dave Dockery observed 108. Rich Richins used his C11 to find 104. Another dozen or so observers started the marathon and stayed for some portion of the night, but their final count is unknown.
• The 2005 All Arizona Messier Marathon, sponsored for the 11th time by the Saguaro Astronomy Club, and again organized by A.J. Crayon and Jack Jones, was held in the night of March 12/13, 2005, once more at the site south of Arizona City. This was one of the more successful ones when only 109 objects could be hunted down (M30 impossible at this early date). Of the about 110 people attending, 40 parties (or 46 people) participated in the Messier Marathon. 13 of them succeeded in finding all possible 109 Messier Objects, an additional 14 observing at least 100. A.J. Crayon has again contributed a great report of this event, and a detailed list of results; thanks!
• Don Machholz undertook his 31st Messier Marathon on March 13/14, 2005, from Calfax, CA with his 6" reflector. From his memory only, he found 109 Messier Objects, which he logged onto an originally empty sheet of paper as he saw them, missing only M30.
• Jan Wisniewski missed the best date of this year due to bad weather in Ontario, and therefore, ran a marathon on March 19/20, 2005 from East Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada. As this date was so close to Full Moon (March 25), he found that it would be too difficult visually, and decided to run it with his Cookbook 245 CCD camera, on his 8-inch SCT, using a f/3.0 focal reducer. Despite problems with the bright moon and consequent delay, he successfully hunted down and photographed 106 Messier Objects, missing only M72, M73, M55, and M30. Without the delay, Jan thinks it had been possible to find M72, 73 and 55 also, and states that the CCD marathon was much more exhausting than a visual one. Read his report (containing a link to his CCD images)!
• Tom Hoffelder and Dick Parker did a Messier Marathon on April 9/10, 2005 at Aruna Hill in Massachusetts. Tom using his C14 and Dick his new 6" f/15 refractor, they did both find 103 Messier objects each, missing M74, 77, 79, 33, 32, 110 and 30. Read Tom's report!
• Willie Strickland of the Central Texas Astronomical Society and the Austin Astronomical Society made his first two attempts at the Messier Marathon from the observing field of the Eagle Eye Observatory of the Austin Astronomical Society. Using his 10" Orion Dob, he logged a total of 80 Messier Objects on the first occasion on April 7/8 despite several inconveniences during that night. On the second occasion, on April 11/12, 2005, Willie was successfully observing 107 Messier Objects, missing only M74, M77 and M33 in the evening. He used the occasion to find M31, M32 and M110 in the morning after having missed them in the evening. Read his report!

• The 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon, sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 12th time), was held in the night of the weekend of March 25/26, 2006 at the site south of Arizona City. Unfortunately, organizer A.J. Crayon could not attend the marathon this time. Also unfortunately, weather (in particular evening clouds) did prevent participants from achieving the full score this time. Best result was 108 Messier Objects observed, achieved by both Larry Brown and Keith Schlottman. 3 people observed 107 each, 4 saw 106, another 5 observers saw 105 Messier Objects (so a total of 14 achieved the 105 mark), and a total of 24 reporting observers have achieved 100. Don Machholz, who attended the Arizona Messier Marathon for the first time and located 102 objects, again did it from memory alone. 54 result reports were turned in; congratulations to all and thanks for contributing! A.J. Crayon, despite missing the event, has created and turned in again a great report and the detailed 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon results list, thanks! Also note our collection of participants' reports, have a look at SAC's preliminary list of 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon Results, and note participator Jeremy Perez' report as well as Andrew Cooper's report!
• A.J. Crayon also reports that a day before the All Arizona Messier Marathon, on Friday March 24 to Saturday March 25, 2006, a couple of observers had already found together at the Arizona City site to run a Messier Marathon. Amongst them, Steve Gifford imaged 99 Messier Objects, and Steve Jaynes found 109, missing only M31. Don Machholz was also there at that time to achieve a full 110, see below.
• Paul Clark reports his second successful 110 object Messier Marathon, achieved during the night of March 24/25, again (as in 2004) from 2000m on the slopes of Mt. Tiede, Tenerife, Canary Isleands. He used a 60mm Borg refractor. Congratulations! Read his report!
• The Kutch Astronomy Club held their their first Messier Marathon this year from a site 10km south-west of Bhuj city in the Kutch District, Gujarat State, India (23:18N, 69:42E) on March 25/26, 2006, using their two 6-inch telescopes and binoculars. In their first attempt, they were successful in locating 94 Messier Objects. Participants were Rahul Zota, Prashany Shah, Nishant Gor, Gunjan Doshi, Parth Chudasama, Ashwin Vagela, Harish Vaghela and Narendra Gor. Read Narenda's report!
• Jane Houston Jones and Morris Jones completed two Messier Marathons on March 25/26 and April 1/2, 2006 from Red Cloud Road near Joshua Tree National Park, CA (Lat 33 Long 115 elev 1495 feet). On March 25/26, 2006, using an 80mm Orion short-tube refractor, a 17.5" f/4.5 and a 14.5" Litebox reflector, they successfully observed 104 Messier objects, missing M77 from clouds at dusk and M55, M2, M72, M73, and M30 due to clouds at dawn. On April 1-2, using a 12.5-inch and a 14.5-inch Litebox reflector, they successfully observed 109 Messier objects, missing only M74. In addition, Jane observed 90 lunar features on the 4 day old vaxing crescent moon, comets C/2006 A1 Pojmanski and 7P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, 13 moons and for planets for a "Solar System Marathon" total of 109. Read her report!
• Art Fritzson undertook his 2006 Messier Marathon on March 25/26 from a dark site about an hour west of Washington, DC, a place called Camp High Road, and one of Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) sites. Using his Garrett 25x100 and his C102 and 7mm Nagler, he successfully observed 104 Messier Objects, missing only M33, M55, M75, M72, M73, and M30. M74 and M76 could be seen only in the C102, not the Garretts. Read his report, or see his summary posting or detailed report at CloudyNights website.
• Robert Burgess of Terrace Observatory (43.9N 78.9W) attempted his 2006 Messier Marathon on March 25/26 and tried to image as many Messier Objects as possible, ending up with the considerable number of 59 successfully imaged objects. Details and images are available on his website.
• C. E. Steuart Dewar and Kelly Maneyapanda did their first Messier Marathon this year, on March 26/27, 2006, from Gorilla Have, GA. Using a pair of Miyauchi Saturn III binoculars (39x100) and a C9.25 scope, they found 104 Messier Objects, missing only M77, M74, and M33 in the evening and M72, M73 and M30 in the morning. Read their report, or their posting at Cloudy Nights website!
• The Moncton Centre's William Brydone Jack Unit held a marathon on the Dorn Ridge, about 25 miles northwest of Fredericton, NewBrunswick, Canada on March 27/28. Donald Kelly found 103 objects only 3 weeks after getting his first telescope, a 10-inch dob, missing only M79, M83, M6, M73, M75, M55 and M30. Ted Dunphy found 108 with his 10-inch dob, missing M75 and M30, while Paul Gray observed 109 with his 12.5-inch dob, missing M30 only. Read Paul's report!
• SWAP (Sky Watchers' Association of Pune) conducted the 2006 Messier Marathon from Girawali, 90 km north of Pune, India. About 10 people participated. Top scores: Adwait Bhagwat (77) with 20x60 binocs, and Rahul Sangole (72) with 6" f7.5 Newtonian. Read Harshad Abhyankar's results report!
• Don Machholz did three Messier Marathons in late March 2006, using his 6" (15 cm) f/8 reflector at about 38x. He did all three marathons from memory again, starting with a sheet of paper with 110 numbered, empty lines and filling in the objects in the order he found them. On Thursday-Friday, March 23-24, 2006, from Red Cloud Road south of Joshua Trees Park, California, he found all 110 objects. The following night, Friday-Saturday, March 24-25, 2006, Don again hunted down the full lot, this time from the Arizona Messier Marathon site in Arizona City, AZ. Finally, on Saturday/Sunday, March 25/26, 2006, Don paricipated in the 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon, and successfully found 102 objects from memory, missing M74, M33, M31, M32, and M110 in the evening as well as M72, M73, and M30 in the morning, all due to clouds. Congratulations for this great achievement! Read his report!
• Don Machholz also reports that in the night of March 24-25, 2006, he was accompanied by George Robinson, who found 106 objects, missing M72, M73, M75, and M30. George used a 10" reflector and star maps.
• Willie Strickland of the Central Texas Observatory and Austin Astronomical Society undertook his 2006 Messier Marathon on March 25/26, 2006 from the observing field at the Turner Research Station of the Central Texas Astronomical Society, near their Paul J. Meyer Observatory at 31.6816 N, 97.67463 W. He used a 10" Orion Dob and Pennington's Messier Marathon book in addition to Equinox planetarium software and Astroplanner to record the observations. During this night, he successfully hunted down 106 Messier objects, missing only M77, M74 and M33 in the evening, and M30 in the morning. Read his report!
• The TUVA Astronomy Club attempted their Messier Marathon 2006 at TUVA Observatory, Oklahoma on April 1, 2006. Unfortunately, this event turned out to be a long wait for clouds to disappear. After everyone had set up under complete clouded skies, all they could do was hope for a break. There were very few breaks in the clouds and probably the most objects anyone found were 10 that night. After about Midnight it became pretty obvious that this years Marathon was over and most observers were packing up and heading for home. A few die hard marathoners stuck it out until around 2a.m. but even they finally threw in the towel. All they could do was hope for a better 2007 marathon. View a few pictures of this event!
• The Northeast Florida Astronomical Society (NEFAS) held a successful 2006 Messier Marathon. Five observers successfully hunted down 110 objects: Dennis O'Day, Dave Crum, Mike Rosset, Lela Rosset, and Mike Ramirez who did it from memory. Congratulations!
• Astronomy Adventures, New Zealand held their first Annual Messier Marathon on Friday, April 21, 2006 from the site of Sky dome observatory, Baylys Beach near Dargaville, Northland, New Zealand. Read Deborah Hambly's report! (also available with images on the Astronomy Adventures site)

• Joe Cambala found all 109 Messier objects he looked for, plus Omega Centauri which he substituted for M102, from Fakahatchee Strand State Park in Florida on March 17/18, 2007 using a 15" f/5 DOB.
• Steuart Dewar and Kelly Maneyapanda did their 2007 Messier Marathon on March 17/18, 2007 from Gorilla Haven in Morganton, GA. They succeeded in finding 109 Messier Objects, missing only M30, which was virtually impossible at their latitude of 35deg N, and this despite a period of about 4 1/2 hours with overcast skies. They used a Miyauchi Saturn III Binoculars (39x100). Read their report!
• "Akash Mitra" from Pune, India conducted the 2007 Messier Marathon from Pokhri, about 125 km north of Pune, on 17-18 March. Evening haze on the western horizon and massive clouds in in the later evening caused the missing of several evening objects. Eventually, Harshad Abhyankar was successhul in finding 108 objects (missing only M74 and M110), Kshitija Kelkar got 82 in her first Messier Marathon attempt, and the other three participants scored as follows: Adwait Bhagwat: 61, Tushar Purohit: 65, and Abha Vaishampayan: 79. Tushar and Adwait had 20x80 binoculars, the others observed with 5" to 6" Newtonians. Read Harshad Abhyankar's results report!
• The Sociedad Astronomica Queretana (SAQ) was hosting a Messier Marathon on March 17/18, 2007 in Queretaro, about 210 km north of Mexico City. 80 observers attended. Guillermo Molina Pérez and Eduardo Pina Mendoza found 107 Messier Objects from memory only; congratulations! They aere missing M74 and M33 and not looking for M102. Four observers located 102 objects: Gabriela Berenice Díaz Cortés, Omar Díaz Cortés, José de Jesús Munoz Gonz´lez, and Octavio A. Flores Escalante.
• The Bangalore Astronomical Society (BAS) of Bangalore, India held their first Messier Marathon from a site 70 km north of Bangalore at Hosahalli village where the sky is very dark but horizons are slightly obstructed. This site is at latitude 13deg N. Originally scheduled and announced at reverse dates, the two sessions occurred as follows: On a first run on March 15-16, 2007, observer Amar A. Sharma was alone and used an 8" f/8 equatorial telescope plus 10x50 binoculars to finally find 101 Messier objects: Amar has provided a report of his first 2007 Messier Marathon attempt. Four observers took part in their second 2007 Messier Marathon on March 17-18: Naveen Nanjundappa observer 68 objects with his 5" Celestron scope at his first-ever marathon attempt; 13-year-old Chetan Reddy found 56 Messier Objects with an 8" f/8 equatorial telescope, Akarsh Simha found 97 Messier Objects in his first attempt from memory only, and Amar A. Sharma hunted down 100 Messiers. Read Amar's report!
• The 2007 All Arizona Messier Marathon, sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 13th time), was held in the night of the weekend of March 17/18, 2007 at the site south of Arizona City. With weather improving as eveing approached, this became a record setting marathon in some respects: 85 vehicles with about 140 people (plus one dog) were counted, and a record number of 61 participating observers turned in their lists. As this was difficult to achieve this time, only one observer, Frank Pino, succeeded in observing all 110 objects, congratulations! Difficult M30 was also found by a second observer, Butch Miller, who had unfortunately missed M74 in the evening. A total of 19 observers succeeded in finding 109, 13 more found 108, one 107, three 106, and six more found at least 100, so a total of 43 who found 100 or more. George Robinson from Auburn, California found 109 from memory only. Youngest marathoner this time was 8-year-old Jacob Sikes, together with his 11-year-old brother Ryan Sikes and 12-year-old Daniel Butters. Al Stiewing, besides observing 109 objects visually, also managed to image 108 (missing M103 in addition to M30 here). Once again, A.J. Crayon has provided a great report and the detailed 2007 All Arizona Messier Marathon results list, thanks!
• The Northeast Florida Astronomical Society (NEFAS) held their 2007 Messier Marathon on March 17/18, 2007. Four observers successfully hunted down all 110 Messier Objects: Dennis O'Day, Dave Crum, Mike Rosset, and Lela Rosset. Congratulations! Read their report forum, and view some pictures from their event!
• The TUVA Astronomy Club held their 2007 Messier Marathon at TUVA Observatory site outside Council Hill, Oklahoma. This year, a record of 30-40 people attended. In the evening, some observers found the typically difficult objects M74 and M77 quite easy, and the group observed an Iridium Flare at 9:28 p.m. Eventually, a group of 8 observers made it through the whole night. Highest score was achieved by two observers, Tony White and Steve Chapman who found 105 objects each, missing only the late morning objects M72, M73, M30, M55, and M75, and who were granted this year's David Stine Award. Third place went to David Stine who found 103, missing M74 and M77 in the evening in addition to the previoously mentioned morning objects, followed by Ann Bruun with 102, to make a total of four observers with more than 100. Three more achieved more than 90: Denny Mishler found 99 with his big binoculars, John Land in his first-ever marathon also found 99, and Tamara Owens found 91. Eventually, Bob Boston finished out the group with 32. Look at some pictures by John Land, and read David Stine's report!
• Gábor Sánta from Szeged, Hungary and his friends Balázs Csák and János Kernya tried to observe all 110 Messier Objects on March 16/17, 2007 from Patca, Hungary, which lies among hills and is one of the darkest sites in this country. The could easily see M74 and M77, but had difficulties in the morning with M69, 70, 54 and M2 due to their northern location. They eventually missed M30, M55, M72, M73 and M75, making a total of 105 Messier Objects observed.

  Gábor Sánta and Balázs Csák repeated their Messier Marathon attempt on April 13/14, 2007 from Öttörnös Hungary (in the Southern Great Plains). Same did János Kernya from Sükösd, Hungary. This time, they were able to find 106 Messier Objects, missing only M74, M77, M79, and M30.

• Jane Houston Jones and Morris "Mojo" Jones did their 2007 Messier Marathon on March 17/18, 2007 from Red Cloud Road off the I-10 freeway, California (Latitude 33N, Longitude 115W). Both were using Dobsonians built by Litebox Telescopes, Jane using a 17.5" f/4.5, Mojo a 14.5" f/4.8 telescope. Eventually, both hunted down 109 Messier Objects (all but M30), also observing as a bonus the Zodiacal Light, Canopus, Omega Centauri, several galaxy groups, and others. Read Jane's report, or view a couple of pictures from this event!
• The Sedona Astronomy Club "Sirius Lookers" hosted a Messier Marathon at their Two Trees location. On Friday night, 3/16/07, Geoff Babcock with his 12.5" Starmaster Dob. and Adam Bloomer with his 14.5" Starmaster Dob. completed the Marathon both finding 109 objects, both missing M30.
• Jon Zander undertook the 2007 Messier Marathon from the Mid Hills campground in the Mojave National Preserve, at position 35:07:52.84 N, 115:26:07.67 W in southeast California, USA, on March 19/20th, 2007. By this time he had been finishing his third tour through the Messier List, once with the Orion/Vixen 30x80 binoculars he used in 2004, and twice with the Meade 12.5" f/4.8 Starfinder Dobsonian (2005 Marathon and a slower two year tour through 2005/2006). This time preparations were much more extensive. He had bought and read Don Machholz's The Observing Guide to the Messier Marathon from cover to cover, and used Google Earth to select a more southern observing site. He also prepared a chart via Starry Night v.4.5.2 software for every object, printing them out with Telrad circles around every object and putting them into a 3-ring binder in observing order--this proved to be an excellent simulated rehearsal! He had also built a rig to fit his KonusMotor 500 4.5" f/4.4 reflector on top of my heavily modified Starfinder dobsonian, so he could have wide-field views to complement the views through the larger reflector. The Konus was a tremendous aid in finding the objects, when he was able to use it (see the report below). Eventually, Jon hunted down all 110 Messier Objects in this his second Messier Marathon attempt. Congratulations! Read his report posted to forum, or Read his report here!

• On the behalf of the Sociedad Astronomica de Sonora Carl Sagan (SASCS) of Hermosillo Sonora Mexico, Dr. Salvador Aguirre is organizing the 2008 Messier Marathon, scheduled for March 29/30, 2008, at location Lat: 29:19:10N, Long: 110:49:2 W.
• The 2008 All Arizona Messier Marathon is scheduled for April 5/6, 2008. This event is sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 14th time), and will be held again at the site south of Arizona City.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, please send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page ! Also send me past results which are not already in this page !

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: January 2, 2008