Messier Marathon at Geigersau

107 messier objects in the night Friday/Saturday, March 16/17, 2012

An alt. 930 m hill close to the Alps, with quite a free horizon well suited for a Messier Marathon. We can't see all 110 Messier objects from
southern Bavaria (decl. +48° North) in one night, either is M30 not yet observable in the morning, or M74 can no longer be seen the evening.

A trip alone, observing from 18:45 till 5:15 with my 120 mm refractor. Good conditions in an entirely clear and dry night. The aim was to
observe as many Messier objects as possible. There is real time pressure both at dusk and dawn, while the hours in between are quite
relaxed, also leaving room for taking photographs or showing objects to people randomly coming along.

A possible path for the Messier Marathon - here with all 110 objects

Copyright image by permission of Jim Cornmell: Jim's Cosmos


18:32 CET: The 120 mm refractor is ready

19:22 CET: Venus (above) and Jupiter in the dusk

The critical evening objects

The galaxies M74 and M77 need to be observed first. Their position is
already low in the West at nightfall, and they prepare for setting. But first
it has to get dark enough, so the time window is only short.

While M77 - the brighter one, and with a far higher surface brightness -
posed no special problems, M74 was already quite difficult: I could
discern the galaxy with averted vision - at times, but definite - but
only because I had known the exact position beforehand.

M74 and M77 above the western horizon

Source: Neave Planetarium


I observed most of the objects with only 29x, that was my finder as well, and the huge field of the 21mm Ethos was very beneficial for star-hopping.
The use of an Amici prisma is important to me, searching with mirror-reversed views would subtract too much energies I need elsewhere. For some
objects I switched to 67x (9mm Nagler); the higher magnification additionally enhances the contrast, which results in a better limiting magnitude.
None of the following objects posed any noteworthy problems for my 120 mm instrument, the wide field allowed for a quick search in many cases
such as in the Virgo cluster. And the Geigersau site could also cope with the southern position of M7 (nearly -35°); the cluster found a gap in the
first Alpine ridges in the SE. The leasurely way of observing only changed when dawn came along ...

Guests at 21:31 CET: An M42 for the little daughter

23:15 CET: I'm just passing M109; with Saturn, Spica and Corvus

23:48 CET: Browsing the Virgo cluster

1:57 CET: A tea pause, with rising Scorpius

2:25 CET: Falling lion with Mars

I hadn't been aware of the encounter Mars - M96 beforehand, hardly more than 15' apart I guess. So I was quite surprised to find Mars
in the way, and I needed 67x to move M96 out of the hue - it would have been a curious fail: Not "dawn" or "haze", but "planet" ;-)

3:09 CET: Summer Triangle ...

3:55 MEZ: ... and Moon rising

Time is finally running out in the dawn ...

Dawn had already begun when the three southern globulars M69, M70 and M54 were eventually high enough to be clearly identified with averted vision,
I had memorized the exact position beforehand. Now I made a short lookup towards M55, but I did not see anything there yet, so I decided to switch to the
Pegasus area: Now the time pressure was really felt, the sky got brighter every minute, and the globulars M15 and M2 had still to be done. I needed more
time as intended for M2, and eventually only the "axis" M73, M72, M75 and M55 was left over - positioned parallel to the south-eastern horizon. Dawn
is relentless, even more so with an additional last quarter moon in the East: I needed some time to secure M73, and probably secured the nearby M72 as
well; there was a patch in the right area discerned with averted vision, but I did not verify it since I wanted to get the last two objects as well. But looking
up I realized that it was too late now for a new starhopping-session in another region: There was no chance anymore to find M75 and M55, regarding the
drastically brightening sky - if dawn had taken a ten minutes break, then perhaps ... ;-)

So I finished the marathon at about 5:15, having probably seen 107 Messier objects - I'm not absolutely certain concerning M72. I think all 109 objects may
have been possible, perhaps with a better preparation for the final objects in the dawn - while M30 cannot be seen in mid-March here.

Dawn: The path of my last Messier objects ...

Copyright image by permission of Jim Cornmell: Jim's Cosmos

... and the "axis" of four tricky morning objects

Source: Neave Planetarium


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