Messier Marathon 2000

In 2000, Full Moon will occur on March 20, 2000, and thus make the best Messier Marathon time unavailable. On the other hand, this will provide two nice opportunities to observe most of the 110 Messier objects, around New Moons on March 6.2 and April 4.8, respectively, so that observers will have a primary weekend on April 1 and a secondary on March 11; it is recommended to try the timely first, secondary opportunity also. This year, there will be a considerably good chance to combine the Messier marathon with an all-planet marathon, i.e. you can observe all solar-system planets during this night, on both dates. As for the time of this writing, the only comets which will become brighter than mag 14.0 at least for one of the two possible Messier Marathon weekends are listed below, based on the JPL List of Currently Visible Comets. Famous Hale-Bopp will still be the brightest during the second opportunity, but only be visible from considerably southern latitudes, of course. C/1999 S4 (LINEAR) will be an evening twilight challenge for the first date and invisible at the second, while C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley) will be an evening twilight challenge at both dates but for southern observers only. So we are left with only one mag 13.5 comet which is easy to find: C/1999 H3 (LINEAR), but stay tuned for possible new discoveries.

Comet		   	      RA (2000.0) Dec  mag	  RA (2000.0) Dec  mag
			  	  March 12, 2000	     April 1, 2000

C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp)         04:32.9  -73:06  13.4       04:40.3  -71:37  13.5
C/1999 H3 (LINEAR)            12:53.3  +42:19  13.5	  12:04.6  +42:18  13.7       
C/1999 S4 (LINEAR)	      01:32.5  +25:45  13.2         -
C/1999 T1 (McNaught-Hartley)  01:44.2  -34:22  14.1       02:05.8  -32:49  13.8

Also, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS or - perhaps a last time - the Russian Space Station Mir.

Messier Marathon Events 2000

The following Messier Marathon Events have been announced:

The All Arizona Messier Marathon 2000 is scheduled for the night of April 1-2, 2000 at the Arizona City Site (see map). Note the report on the Arizona Messier Marathons in the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly
The observers of observatorium Beisbroek in Brugge (Belgium) have a Messier Marathon on the 11th of March 2000 in Oedelem a small village in Belgium. - Emmanuel Fabel, TW Oostende, Belgium <emmanuel.fabel.296@b-rail.be>
The Western Colorado Astronomy Club is holding 2 messier marathons, one March 4 and one in early April [April 1] - Steve Renner, Grand Junction, CO
East Coast Star Party/Messier Marathon March 3 & 4: Anyone interested in attending March 3 and 4 please email Kent Blackwell. The starparty will be at Hampton Lodge Campground in Coinjock, NC near the NC/VA border, 1 hour south of Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. It's a small starparty, but we already know we'll have at least one 25", a 20" Obsession and an 18" Obsession, some nice refractors, and some smaller apertures. If you live near this area it's a fun starparty.
The Shoreline Amateur Astronomical Association of Holland, Michigan is holding a messier marathon, one on March 3/4 or one in early April [April 1] - depending on weather. Interested astronomers contact Robert Wade (saaa@macatawa.org).
The Kalamazoo (Michigan) Astronomical Society will hold its 2000 Messier Marathon Friday, March 31, at a private location. Email <memiller@net-link.net> if interested in attending. If cloudy, we will try again on April 1. Last year was our most successful marathon in about eight attempts; we'll try to better our record this year.
The Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches, Inc. members are having their first ever out-of-town, multi-club observing event. It will be on the weekend of 3/31/ through 4/2/2000 under some of the darkest skies in the state, northwest of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, at 9 Mile Grade Campground, Highlands County, FL. The weather in central Florida at this time of year provides low temperature averages in the sixties and has a pretty good chance of very transparent conditions, being in the "dry season" at this time of year. Contact Kye Ewing.
Ivan Jaen-Perigault will attempt a Messier Marathon from the province of Chiriqui in the west side of the Republic of Panama at about 9 deg North latitude, in or near the weekend March 4-8, 2000. The sky during the first quarter of the year is almost clear of clouds because of the "dry season" here and temperature is 19 to 20 centigrade. He assumes that this will be a sole effort as he doesn't have other candidates willingly to travel 300 miles from Panama City, particularly during the local Carnival season. I urge everybody who can to falsify this assumption, and contact Ivan at ivanjaen@sinfo.net!
The Austin,Tx Astronomical Society is sponsoring a Messier Marathon within the Central Texas Star Party (CTSP) on the weekend of March 31 to April 1, 2000. This event will take place at their new Eagle Eye Observatory at the Canyon of the Eagles nature park close to Burnet, TX. Look at their announce for more detail or email Jack Estes.
After a first successful Messier Marathon attempt on March 3/4, amateurs at the Florida Institute of Technology Astronomy/Astrophysics department plan a second Messier Marathon 2000 event on April 1 at the Bull Creek observatory site in Central Florida. Contact Isaac Silver.
S*T*A*R Astronomy (Monmouth County, New Jersey) is hosting a club Messier Marathon on Saturday, March 11th. The marathon will be at Coyle Field in the Pine Barrens. An escorted "newcomers caravan" will leave from the Colts Neck Firehouse #2 at about 6:30 p.m. on March 11th. Please contact Steve Walters (swalters@telecordia.com) for more information, and visit their club website.
The Rose-City Astronomers will be holding a Messier Marathon 7 miles away from the Kah-Nee-Ta resort, on March 31st-April 2nd. (Thanks to Stephanie Cox for reporting)
Emmanuel Thienpont and Koen Van Cauwenberghe will leave the rainy Belgium for 14 days and go to the Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain. They will go by car and take one telescope with us - a C11 on a Losmandy mount. They will try the marathon for the first time. Contact kvancauw@bru-hub.dhl.com
The North Alabama Astronomy Group (NAAG) plans to hold a marathon April 1 at the house of Wayne White near Moulton, Alabama. They expect to have 12 or 13 participants with scopes and several other just looking. Contact Wayne White
The Agrupacion Astronomica "Magallanes" organize a 2000 Messier Marathon in Jrez de la Frontera (Spain) the 1-2 April. Contact Alberto Romero Vera
The Israeli Astronomical Assocation is organizing 2 Messier marathons - one on the night of the 30th and one on the night of the 31st of March. Meeting place - Latrun gas Station, next to Andartat Hashirion. Israeli people will know where this is. Please bring telescopes and other equipment. Contact: Asaf Shtull-Trauring (asafmail@yahoo.com)

Please email me any further scheduled Messier Marathon 2000 events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2000 or earlier, if not already done so, please email me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

Also note Sky Publishing's Messier Marathon Contest.

Marathon Home

Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

Last Modification: 6 Apr 2000, 8:20 MET