Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 09:09:53 -0700
From: Rich N.
To: spider
Subject: Re: (fwd) Messier Marathon Results Request

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Hi Hartmut,

This year TAC held its annual Messier marathon at
Henry Coe state park (near San Jose, Calif), April 1st, 2000.

I got 103 Messier objects.  The ones I missed were M74,
M77, M31, M32, M110, M33, and M30.  At sunset and
for some time in the early evening we had high, thin
clouds in the West.  It is also looking in the bright sky glow
of San Jose.  This is my excuse for missing the first 6.
M30 was, for me, just too low in a bright sky in the morning.

I was using an Astro-Physic 155mm f/7 (155EDFS) APO
refractor with a Telrad finder and an erect image 7.6x50 finder.
The eyepiece I used most of the time was a TV 27mm Panoptic.

The charts used:  Messier Marathon Observer's Guide by Don
Machholz; Astro Cards; The Night Sky planisphere.

Hope this helps,
Rich

ps  (A few years ago, with clearer even skies and a smaller 5"
        refractor, at another TAC Messsier marathon I got all the
        evening ones that I missed this year, except for M74.)



From: Rich N.
Newsgroups: sci.astro.amateur
Subject: Messier marathon with AP 155EDFS
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 15:21:05 -0700

Our TAC Messier marathon this was dedicated to
Don Machholz, a great comet hunter and one of
the originators of the Messier marathon.   This year
we held the marathon on April 1st at Henry Coe
State Park, a few miles south of San Jose, California.
The observing site at Coe has a good horizon.  The sky
to the west is relatively bright, but to the east the sky is
quite dark.

I got 103 Messier objects.  With the high thin clouds in
the west, and a lot of sky glow from San Jose, I thought
several of the early objects were not going to be possible
, so, when a troop of Boy Scouts came by I showed them
M42 and M45.  I did the same for several other visitors.   We
also tried looking at Jupiter and Saturn but the seeing poor
at the time (they were very low).   I missed M74, M77, M33,
M31, M32, M110 at sunset.

After the visitors thinned out I started going after Messier
objects where the clouds weren't so bad.  The darker
skies also helped.  With the late date of the marathon
and relatively cloud free morning skies, the only other
Messier object I missed was M30.

The hardware worked very well.  I was using an AP 155mm
f/7 APO with 7.6x50 correct viewing finder and Telrad on a 900GTO
mount.   It's a very easy to star hop using the two finders and
a TV 27mm Panoptic in an AP Maxbright diagonal.  I may have been
able to get the through Virgo a little faster if I had used a 35mm Panoptic.
With the wider view, I think it would have been easier to figure out
which galaxy was which.  The mount moved, by hand, like butter.
The AP155EDFS, 900GTO combo was rock solid.

The charts I used were from the Messier Marathon Observer's
Guide Handbook and Atlas by Don Machholz.  I also used Astro
Cards and The Night Sky planisphere.  It was easy checking off
the Messier objects, page by page, in Don's book.  With only a
couple of exceptions I kept to the order of the objects in the book.

Most of the time I didn't need to use the 7.6x50 finder.   The Telrad
and 27mm Panoptic were enough drop on many of the objects.  The
Telrad may not look so great, but it performs very well.  I strap the Telrad
base on the OTA using a 2" wide elastic strip that attaches to Velcro (hook
side) on the top of the Telrad's base.   I'm sure the marathon would have
been easier if I had used the mount in GOTO mode, but I haven't gotten
around to reading the directions on using the GOTO.   ;-)

I did do a little observing during the night.   When I got to M13 I popped
in a 12 mm Brandon.  The big globular was beautifully resolved.  The
little galaxy NGC 6207 was easy to see.

It looked like there were about 50 telescopes at the star party.   It
was good to see several newbies come out with their scopes.  I'm
not sure how many people did the marathon.   At least one person
collected 107 messier objects.  It was a fun night.  By about 10 pm
most of the high thin clouds were gone.  The seeing also improved.
Strangely, with all those observers and we didn't see one UFO.  We didn't
see any flying triangles, no saucers, no mother ship..  oh well, maybe
next year.

Clear skies,
Rich