America 2015: Part 3 of 4

All Arizona Messier Marathon 2015

There is a timeframe in the second half of March when all 110 Messier objects can be theoretically seen within one night, given you observe in
a certain range of latitudes - the Marathon site in Arizona (decl. 33,5° N) is within that range, and the timeframe is about 10 days long here. And
this year the new moon weekend fell into that period, rather close to its beginning. That means that of the two notoriouly critical objects, M74 is
easier to get in the evening, while M30 is harder to catch in the morning. In southern Bavaria we are positioned too far north (decl. 48° N)
to get all Messiers, while 109 objects may be possible. In 2012 I did a personal Messier Marathon with my 120 mm refractor on a hill in the
Alpine uplands, and could discern 107 messiers back then.

Friday, March 20

We reached the "Hovatter Airstrip" Marathon site - about 90 miles west of Phoenix - on Friday afternoon. The Marathon is organized by the
Saguaro Astronomy Club in Phoenix, that's also the club of Tom and Jennifer. The weather forecast had become ever better during the week,
and meanwhile the prospects were already quite good for the official Marathon night on Saturday to Sunday. And the night before could
already be used for practice as well.

Julian starts his drone

Our neighbors Lamar (with 20-inch) and Paul

With Tom's 10" f/5.5 and Earth's shadow

Friday evening: Sunset

I tried some initial Messier objects for testing, and then went through the whole lot of the winter Messiers up to M67 and M44 in one go. And not to forget
southern objects like the dense open cluster NGC 2477. In between I also visited our southern neighbors. Lamar observed several emission nebulae with his
20-inch, among them the Rosette Nebula and "Thor's Helmet" NGC 2359 - what Friedhelm and I call the "Snail with shell". On this occasion I showed him
another Wolf Rayet bubble, Sharpless 308 in Canis Major, which is located considerably higher here than at home, showing differently bright parts of a ring
with the OIII-filter. And Paul, a geologist with a 25-inch, prepared a nice buffet: The "Medusa Nebula" Abell 21 and the galaxies M66 and M95 - with some
interesting details.

The first night gets wet

But the night became increasingly more wet, while local folks assured me that this was very rare here. That wouldn't be good at all for the coming Marathon
night of course, and would set a big question mark concerning its success. Lamar promised me handwarmers which could be fixed to the secondary mirror -
just in case. So with deteriorating conditions I went for a nap, but was up again around 4:00 AM. The conditions were a bit better again now, and I followed the
further events in the eastern sky with interest, using my 8x56 binoculars. It was soon clear that southern objects like the globulars M69, M70, M54, M55 and M75
were far easier to get here than at home; what had been really difficult at my home Marathon at Geigersau in 2012, or what I didn't get at all (M55, M75) was quite
easy here - due to the difference in declination of about 14,5°. Only M72, M73 and also M2 were comparatively more difficult because of their rise within the light
dome of Phoenix, while it seemed that M30 would rise sufficiently away from it to the right. But I didn't wait for M30; the sky was still wet, and quite brightened
near the horizon, there would have been no chance to glimpse it anyway.

Saturday, March 21

We stayed at the site, buying Marathon T-Shirts and having some nice talks with local participants. Some of them spoke a bit German, either because they
had learned it at school, or because their father had once been stationed in Germany as a soldier. We just stood in a group with organizer Rick Tejera - in early
afternoon - when Tom and Jennifer arrived on the site. They positioned themselves next to us, and Tom had taken along the 15-inch which he had promised Julian
for his marathon. I also met AJ Crayon for a short talk, the former long-time organizer of the Marathon event. Altogether 68 cars were counted, with about 100
people present at the site.

Tom prepares the 15-inch

f.l. Ben, Julian, Jack Jones, Tom Mozdzen, Jennifer, Tom and Ken Reeves

Julians drone in action:

There is a compilation as a drone video on YouTube

At 5:00 PM organizer Rick invited to a meeting

Raffle: Jennifer, Tom and Rick, and two young judges

Rick Tejera Tom Jennifer Polakis

The initial cirrus in the NW was ...

... increasingly dissolving: Canopus near the horizon

A possible path for the Messier Marathon

Let's go: The Messier Marathon begins

Around the time of the image above (with Canopus) the Messier Marathon started for me: I did all the observing with Tom's 20 mm Explore Scientific
eyepiece, with the huge field of 100 degrees. That corresponded to a magnification of 69x in the 10-inch f/5.5 Dobson, and to a real field of easily more
than one degree in the sky. I intended to do the Marathon without consulting maps, only out of memory, and that eventually worked out; I had positioned
the two Uranometria star atlases nearby, just in case the sky would deteriorate, and then I might no longer find the star hopping paths - they are quite subtle
e.g. in the Virgo cluster, and easily no longer seen so well. That was fortunately not the case, and the amount of moisture remained limited compared to the
previous night - eyepieces and secondary mirror remained clear all along.

The first objects are those who will soon set in the West, and therefore have to be observed in time. On the other hand one has to wait till the sky is dark
enough: "Already dark enough, but the object not yet too low in the horizontal haze". The high surface brightness galaxy M77 met these conditions already
about 7:40 PM, and so it was the first Messier object of the night. A bit later Tom and I stood near Julian and congratulated him for his M77 observation.

The position of M74

Source: Cartes du Ciel

M74 is considerably more difficult: Meanwhile I'm very familiar with the position
and then just wait like a cat before a mousehole, until a brightening in the right area
may appear - usually only with averted vision. I saw it best in Anderson Mesa, with
a better sky and four nights earlier; the day before and now I had to wait at least till
about 8:00 PM until the galaxy unmistakably revealed itself.

The map nearly corresponds to the impression in the bottom-up image of a Newton.
On top the mag 3.6 star Eta in Piscium, and at bottom the pair of stars of about 6th
magnitude. And when - at about 40 % of their distance, measured from below - the
indicated pair of two stars of nearly mag 11 can be discerned, then one can settle
there and wait for M74 - with or without success. Although this galaxy is clearly
brighter in sum (mag 9.4) than each these two stars, it is nevertheless far harder
to discern: Due to a lack of contrast as an extensive object in a not yet fully dark
dusk sky, and moreover already in a low position. And this large face-on galaxy
has a low surface brightness, what makes things all the more difficult.

Julian tried hard to get M74, but couldn't discern the galaxy. I recommended him to
give up M74, since meanwhile the M31 group was already quite low as well, and so
several more Messier objects might be missed as well. Would have been a pity, since
from now on the Marathon went very well for Julian.

Afterwards I went through the winter Messier's - including M52 in Cassiopeia - up to M67 and M44 in one go again. The combination of telrad,
8x50-finder and the 20mm wide field was very convenient for star hopping. There was no time pressure at all for the next hours, and some folks
took a nap for some hours in between.

Ben before the Puppis Milky Way

Tom as a guest at his 10-inch

Tom Polakis

Julian during the Marathon

Paul and Jennifer, at left the 25-inch

The Marathon went on leisurely. I had gone through the Virgo Cluster in one go, all with the 20 mm eyepiece, and then it was again time for a
snack on my neighbors buffet again: Lamar was observing the Abell 1367 galaxy cluster in his 20-inch, and showed a great "Whale" NGC 4631.
And Paul observed the interacting NGC 4038/39 galaxies and a very fine Whirlpool M51. Paul was amused about the many object designations
he found in his new Interstellarum "Deep Sky Atlas". Included is the asterism of "Polakis 1" in the star cloud M24, an arrow-like pattern pointing
to M17.

Meanwhile the giant globular cluster Omega Centauri had reached its highest position in the meridian, and was quite impressive in the 15-inch.
That would be interesting for Julian as well - when would we see Omega Centauri the next time ? - but he was apparently taking a nap right now.
Jennifer strongly suggested to wake him, and before I could take action in that respect, Julian came out of the van again, and could marvel at this
southern showpiece.

Jennifer joined me when I was hiking down the summer Milky Way along the Marathon path, and picking up M11, M26, M16, M17 and M18. And
when it was M24's turn, she showed me the family-owned star pattern Polakis 1. The southern objects like M7, M69, M70, M54, M55 or M75 were
all much easier to get here than at home in southern Bavaria.

Observing near M22, at left the Phoenix light dome

Don Machholz (left) comes for a visit

Don Machholz, the famous discoverer of already 11 comets, was also taking part in the event. He had heard that I do the Marathon out of
memory; I read that he had done so already on many occasions, and this was his 51th Messier Marathon. And so he came along to see the
guest from Europe, and I was appointed the "Machholz of Germany" - really a very nice appreciation, but I'd say it's a bit much too much
of an honour ;-)

So we eventually reached the final phase, and it was not really difficult apart from the last object. One could leisurely wait until first M15,
and then M2, M72 and M73 clawed their way through the light dome of Phoenix. And then 109 objects were done, and only M30 missing.

The position of M30

Source: Cartes du Ciel

M30 was also theoretically the most difficult object of the evening. Although both brighter (mag 7.3)
and with a much higher surface brightness than M74, but still near the start of its visibility phase, and
therefore very low in a rapidly brightening dawn sky. I had memorized the exact position, but I did
not have the practical Marathon-sky experience as I had with M74.

I had first waited for the appearance of the star pattern around Zeta and 36 Capricorni with my
8x56 binoculars, then switched to the 10-inch, and followed the emergence of the mag 6.4 star,
and then that of 41 Cap above the mountains. Now M30 was already "there", but still too low, and
I saw nothing yet for now. Here it is the other way round as with M74 in the evening: It takes some
time until M30 is high enough, but the quickly brightening sky allows only for a short time-window -
if at all. I remembered the 12mm Nagler which I had deposited as a reserve: To have the possibility
to increase the contrast with a higher magnification - just in case. But I had never used this eyepiece,
and now it turned out that I didn't get a focus with it, and that was not the ideal time to search for
adapters ;-) So I put Tom's 20 mm Explore Scientific in again, and based on the line between the
mag 6.4 star and 41 Cap - after nearly three quarters a bit to the right - I identified the mag 8.6
star close to M30. It was easily seen in one field with 41 Cap due to the wide field eyepiece.

And after some unsuccessful tries, a slight brightening appeared in the right area with averted vision -
not steadily held, but perceived at times. I could repeat this impression, but it was still marginal, and
I could not rule out the possibility that the wish was the father of the sighting here. Tom was not far
away, and before I officially announce "110" I wanted his confirmation. I asked him to have a look,
without specifying the position. And he recognized M30 at once, and that was sufficient for me to say:

I've seen all 110 Messier objects !

We estimated that the time of the successful observations had been around 5:33 AM; Rick estimated that there had been
a window of perhaps five minutes when it was possible to glimpse M30. Tom had just found 109 Messier objects with his
10x30 (!) binoculars, all but M30 - an extreme performance !

And Julian had managed to get all "normal" 108 objects, all but M74 and M30 - a great performance ! And contrary
to me he really had to work hard on the objects, and usually had to consult the map. He had quite intensively prepared
himself in the last week, also concerning the sequence of the objects. He had my Geigersau list and Rick's current list
at hand, and the latter of course better fits the more southern position here; there a real differences concerning
the best sequence. All in all 12 participants have seen all 110 objects, Rick Tejera has posted the result & infos
And here is as well the official result:

I'm tired and pleasantly contented after the Marathon - that was great experience !

Farewell to Tom and Jennifer

After a few hours of sleep we arranged a farewell visit to a restaurant, and therefore drove to Quartzsite a bit further to the West.
Our relations had become really cordial, and Jennifer said that she would rather prefer us to stay. Tom & Jennifer, once again
thanks a lot for the great time we spent together, and all the help you had given to us ! And as we said to Brian: If you come
over to Bavaria one day we are ready :)

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