Messier Marathon

The annual Messier Marathon will be held at Henry Coe State Park on Saturday March 8.

Charles Messier was a French comet hunter in the late 1700s. To prevent him from misidentifying “non comets” he started cataloging them. This lead to the first list of non-stellar objects. The equipment Messier used would barely qualify as beginner equipment today. Thus his list of 110 objects is also the list of the brightest non-stellar objects in the sky.

I will let the reader explore on his own the history behind the list and focus instead on what we will be doing on the 8th. By chance during March all of the Messier objects are visible at some point during the night. True some objects you will have to dig out of the twilight from the light pollution of Morgan Hill and San Jose. At least one of the morning objects has never risen before twilight during the times I have done the marathon. But the rest are all there for the taking.

This is not an opportunity to “see” the objects. There are times when you will have to spend mere seconds on each object. This is especially true in the early evening and after 3 AM in the morning. So why do the marathon?

Well if you are a type A, goal oriented person (like the author) then the challenge of completing the list is reward enough.

For everyone else I believe a different focus is appropriate. I originally did the marathon for the challenge, but realized I learned a lot about how to efficiently use charts and locate objects. For me that is the true value of the marathon.

It is an absolute requirement that you have excellent charts before you attempt the marathon. But more than that you need to be able to use the charts efficiently and that requires some planning.

The classic book on the marathon (The Observing Guide to the Messier Marathon) was written by long time member and comet hunter Don Machholz. The search strategy of Machholz’s book assumes an Equatorial mount (move xx degrees N yy degrees W). These directions are less useful to someone with a Dob. Thus in 2006 I published the charts generated by my Planetarium Program SkyMap Pro which I had used in my first two marathons. Links to my charts will be available from the SJAA web page.

Both sets of instructions provide detailed strategies for the hard sections of the search (e.g. Virgo).

The approach in my charts is the same 3 chart levels approach used in my Star Hopping 101 class. You start with high level charts to orient yourself. You then switch to the finder charts to refine your location. In the most crowded parts of the sky a third set of charts allows you to move through Virgo at the eyepiece.

I have done the marathon with 5 different scopes ranging from 100 mm to 15”. Almost all objects can be easily seen from Coe even in the 100mm. A 6-10” scope would be ideal.

This year’s marathon is the earliest in March since I have been a member. That means you will have the best shot at getting those morning and evening objects.

SJAA will make object lists available before the event. I strongly recommend you use a checklist such as this to keep track of what you have seen.

See the web site for detailed directions to our observing spot.