**************************************** * Messier Marathon Observer's Form * **************************************** This file presents the Messier objects in the order of the Marathon Search Sequence given by Don Machholz in his "Messier Marathon Observer's Guide", suited so that you can fill in your observations easily. Messier Marathon Search Sequence ================================ Compiled online by Hartmut Frommert, using work of Don Machholz. Depending on geographic location, it may be impossible to find them all, and may be better to slightly modify this list. In case of doubt consult Don Machholz's book. This list should be good for northern latitudes 20 to 40. My Messier Marathon =================== Date: March 27/28, 1998 Observer: Bob Davidson - rpdpsw78@doitnow.com Location: AZ City site Lat: 32 deg 27’ 30” N Long: 111 deg 44’ W Time Zone: AZ, MST (UT - 420 min) Instruments used: I use a highly modified Celestron 8” Starhopper and TeleView Plossls eyepieces. The scope has a Telrad and a 6X30 finder. My primary eyepiece was a 21mm yielding 58X and a field of view just under 1 degree. Scope modifications and other equipment include: 1. Painted tube interior with sawdust treatment. EVERYTHING except optical surfaces themselves has been painted with Krylon flat black. 2. Re-built dob base to include improved Alt/Az bearings, home made Alt/Az setting circles and built in leveling legs on the base. 3. Crazy Ed JSL 2” Crayford style focuser. 4. Notebook computer with personally written program that searches the SAC 6.0 data base for the desired object and performs a real time conversion to Alt/Az coordinates based on computer internal clock and local Lat/Long. General Comments: Storm front had moved through central and northern Arizona during the day. Satellite images indicated improved sky's in southern Arizona even though it looked very stormy in Phoenix as if it could rain any time. AZ City site is about 75 miles south of the Phoenix area. Would AZ City site be far enough south?? Arrived at the site about 4:30 p.m.. Not as cloudy as back in Phoenix, but still not clear enough for good observing. Had a nice visit with Ray Farnsworth, land owner of the observing site. Clouds dissipated at sunset! I was the ONLY one there all night! Low cloud layer remained over most of the northern horizon all night up to about 5 degrees Alt. Had six Trapezium stars at about 7:45 p.m. using ~130X. Turned out to be a great night! By 11 p.m. I had observed everything that was up. Dew was forming due to the excess moisture left over from the storm. Covered everything up and took a nap. Got up about 2 a.m. to finish. More dew! Mainly wet papers. Didn't affect the scope. Coyotes began to serenade me about 3 a.m.. They were really close! Had a few very low clouds on eastern horizon about 4:30 a.m. extending from about 1-2 degrees Alt at Az 80-130 deg. These obscured M2, M73 and M30 for a short time. Bagged M30 at 5:06 a.m.. Packed up and headed home! My observing order is based on a combination of the object's rise/set time in relation to sunset/sunrise at the specific observing site as well as the optimum time of observation, ie., time of maximum altitude. The observing times recorded are from the computer program which was syn'cd with WWV to within +- 1 min. via my quartz wristwatch. The Object List: ================ No. M# NGC# Const. Type Your# Time Comments 2 M74 628 Psc GS 1 7:50 PM Tough! Only 7 deg above the horizon, relatively faint object (mag 9.4) and not fully dark yet. But GOT IT! 5 M32 221 And GE 2 8:01 PM This trio is always great, even at this low altitude. 6 M110 205 And GE 3 8:01 PM """" 4 M31 224 And GS 4 8:01 PM """" 1 M77 1068 Cet GS 5 8:04 PM real small 3 M33 598 Tri GS 6 8:07 PM almost lost in the western glow 12 M79 1904 Lep Gl 7 8:08 PM 9 M76 650 Per Pl 8 8:11 PM Small 8 M103 581 Cas OCl 9 8:12 PM "Real small ""dipper"" looking object." 10 M34 1039 Per OCl 10 8:14 PM Big & open 21 M41 2287 CMa OCl 11 8:15 PM Fairly bright star in the center 11 M45 - Tau OCl 12 8:17 PM Always a treat - better in 15X80 bino's 13 M42 1976 ori DN 13 8:20 PM Six trapezium stars at 130X. Sky's are not too bad. 14 M43 1982 Ori DN 14 8:21 PM Dark band through middle. 7 M52 7654 Cas OCl 15 8:23 PM "One fairly bright ""red"" star neqr the center. Mostly faint stars - needs to be higher." 24 M46 2437 Pup OCl 16 8:26 PM NGC2438 in the middle 23 M47 2422 Pup OCl 17 8:28 PM Nice double in the middle 15 M78 2068 Ori DN 18 8:30 PM Fuzzy - two stars just off center. 25 M50 2323 Mon OCl 19 8:31 PM nice cluster 16 M1 1952 Tau SNR 20 8:32 PM a real fuzz ball! 20 M38 1922 Aur OCl 21 8:33 PM uniform star magnitudes 19 M36 1960 Aur OCl 22 8:35 PM relatively small 18 M37 2099 Aur OCl 23 8:36 PM real nice @~80X - fairly uniform star magnitudes. 17 M35 2168 Gem OCl 24 8:37 PM Big & loose 22 M93 2447 Pup OCl 25 8:38 PM almost gets lost in Milky Way 26 M48 2548 Hya OCl 26 8:40 PM big & open 27 M44 2632 Cnc OCl 27 8:41 PM REAL loose - bright 28 M67 2628 Cnc OCl 28 8:43 PM What a difference from M44 - but pretty 34 M81 3031 UMa GS 29 8:45 PM has 2 stars next to it 35 M82 3034 UMa GIr 30 8:45 PM edge on 29 M95 3351 Leo GS 31 9:02 PM Has several farily bright stars close by 30 M96 3368 Leo GS 32 9:02 PM No bright stars close 31 M105 3379 Leo GE 33 9:07 PM Nice with NGC3384/9 and M95/6 nearby too 37 M108 3556 UMa GS 34 9:09 PM nice edge on with star in the middle 36 M97 3587 UMa Pl 35 9:10 PM fuzz ball close to M108 32 M65 3623 Leo GS 36 9:14 PM Nice with M66 and NGC3628 33 M66 3627 Leo GS 37 9:14 PM 4 stars close to M66 38 M109 3992 UMa GS 38 9:16 PM real faint 49 M98 4192 Com GS 39 9:20 PM edge on 50 M99 4254 Com GS 40 9:20 PM round fuzzy 40 M106 4258 CVn GS 41 9:23 PM BIG! edge on 64 M61 4303 Vir GS 42 9:26 PM Can't pick out companions NGC4292 & 4303A 39 M40 - UMa 2St 43 9:28 PM 2 stars & NGC4290 nearby - tiny & faint 51 M100 4321 Com GS 44 9:33 PM Can't pick out companions NGC4328/4312 53 M84 4374 Vir GS0 45 9:37 PM Nice with NGC4438/5 & 4388 54 M86 4406 Vir GS0 46 9:37 PM same commend as M84 55 M87 4486 Vir GE 47 9:37 PM What a galaxy cluster! WOW! 52 M85 4382 Com GS0 48 9:40 PM Nice with NGC4394 - tell M85 by a star in its disk 63 M49 4472 Vir GE 49 9:43 PM fairly bright 58 M88 4501 Com GS 50 9:44 PM fairly bright 59 M91 4548 Com GS 51 9:48 PM faint - 2 close stars 56 M89 4552 Vir GE 52 9:49 PM almost looks like a star - faint 57 M90 4569 Vir GS 53 9:51 PM May have a faint star in the middle 60 M58 4579 Vir GS 54 10:05 PM SO much stuff in this area - hard to make a positive ID without my detailed finder/ID charts 61 M59 4621 Vir GE 55 10:05 PM same comment as for M58 66 M68 4590 Hya Gl 56 10:10 PM nice change of pace after all those galaxies! 65 M104 4594 Vir GS 57 10:13 PM nice dust lane through its center at 163X 62 M60 4649 Vir GE 58 10:15 PM nice with dimmer NGC4638 & M59 41 M94 4736 CVn GS 59 10:20 PM real bright center 47 M64 4826 Com GS 60 10:22 PM big & bright 46 M53 5024 Com Gl 61 10:23 PM real bright 48 M3 5272 CVn Gl 62 10:23 PM big & REAL bright! 42 M63 5055 CVn GS 63 10:25 PM 2 bright stars nearby 43 M51 5194 CVn GS 64 10:27 PM GREAT! with NGC5195 next to it 67 M83 5236 Hya GS 65 10:31 PM big & low surface brightness - only 12 deg Alt. 44 M101 5457 UMa GS 66 10:34 PM Big & low surface brightness 45 M102? 5866 Dra GS0 67 10:41 PM real faint - NGC5866? 68 M5 5904 Ser Gl 68 10:43 PM big & bright even if it is low - ~18 deg Alt. 69 M13 6205 Her Gl 69 10:46 PM nice 70 M92 6341 Her Gl 70 10:47 PM smaller but still nice 83 M80 6093 Sco Gl 71 2:24 AM bright 82 M4 6121 Sco Gl 72 2:26 AM big & bright 77 M107 6171 Oph Gl 73 2:32 AM fainter than other Glob's 78 M12 6218 Oph Gl 74 2:34 AM nice 79 M10 6254 Oph Gl 75 2:36 AM "M12's ""twin""" 85 M62 6266 Oph Gl 76 2:37 AM small & fuzzy 84 M19 6273 Oph Gl 77 2:40 AM fainter than most 71 M57 6720 Lyr Pl 78 2:42 AM really bright 72 M56 6779 Lyr Gl 79 2:43 AM fainter one 80 M14 6402 Oph Gl 80 2:45 AM big but low surface brightness 75 M27 6853 Vul Pl 81 2:46 AM fairly bright - nice as always 76 M71 6838 Sge Gl 82 2:48 AM low surface brightness 73 M29 6913 Cyg OCl 83 2:51 AM small grouping - tough to pick out 88 M11 6705 Sct OCl 84 2:52 AM uniform star magnitudes - bright one in the middle 89 M26 6694 Sct OCl 85 2:55 AM dim - blends with the general area 90 M16 6611 Ser OCl 86 2:58 AM could probably use OIII on this one 74 M39 7092 Cyg OCl 87 3:00 AM loose group - bright! 81 M9 6333 Oph Gl 88 3:01 AM """just another Glob""" 91 M17 6618 Sgr DN 89 3:02 AM love the omega shape of this one 92 M18 6613 Sgr OCl 90 3:05 AM small bright grouping 95 M23 6494 Sgr OCl 91 3:07 AM big & loose 93 M24 >6603 Sgr OCl 92 3:09 AM HUGE!! 94 M25 I4725 Sgr OCl 93 3:10 AM loose bright stars 96 M21 6531 Sgr OCl 94 3:12 AM small grouping 97 M20 6514 Sgr DN 95 3:13 AM nice - needs a filter 98 M8 6523 Sgr DN 96 3:14 AM needs to be higher but nice! Would be better with OIII 100 M22 6656 Sgr Gl 97 3:15 AM huge glob - really nice! 99 M28 6626 Sgr Gl 98 3:17 AM needs higher mag than 58X 106 M15 7078 Peg Gl 99 3:18 AM yup - its there at 3.1 deg Alt 86 M6 6405 Sco OCl 100 3:20 AM big - lots of bright stars 101 M69 6637 Sgr Gl 101 3:21 AM sorta faint 103 M54 6715 Sgr Gl 102 3:22 AM small & faint 87 M7 6475 Sco OCl 103 3:24 AM big - lots of bright stars 102 M70 6681 Sgr Gl 104 3:25 AM low surface brightness - needs to be higher 105 M75 6864 Sgr Gl 105 3:29 AM faint & fuzzy just 5 deg Alt 104 M55 6809 Sgr Gl 106 3:42 AM just 4.5 deg Alt - BIG 108 M72 6981 Aqr Gl 107 4:12 AM finally aot it at 9 deg Alt - faint! 107 M2 7089 Aqr Gl 108 4:29 AM position seems off by about 1 deg compared to everything else in this area. Check database. 109 M73 6994 Aqr 4St 109 4:34 AM "REAL little! - four stars in a tiny grouping shaped like an ""L"". Two stars at the bottom of the ""L"" are brighter." 110 M30 7099 Cap Gl 110 5:06 AM GOT IT! at 3.5 deg Alt as it emerged from behind a low cloud bank. *********************************** * * * * * Score: ___110___ of 110 !! * * * * * *********************************** Key: No. : Don Machholz' sequence number M# : Messier number NGC# : NGC (or IC) number Con : Constellation (abbrevated) Type : Object Type (see below) Your# : Your actual sequence number Time : Your observing time (in your time zone) Comments: Any important observing circumstances/results etc. Types: OCl=Open Cluster, Gl=Globular Cluster, Pl=Planetary Nebula, DN=Diffuse Nebula, G S=Spiral Galaxy, G E=Elliptical Galaxy, GIr=Irrgeular Galaxy, GS0=Lenticular (S0) Galaxy, SNR=SNR, 2St=Binary Star, 4St=4 Star System Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org) Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)