Contributed by: Rick Tejera Thu, 5 Apr 2001 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon Article for the Saguaro Astronomy Clubs Newsletter Reflections March Madness For the past two years, I've delved into the astronomical version of March Madness: The Messier Marathon. My first outing two years ago showed that this bit of lunacy is actually easier than it would seem, since I bagged 94 objects. Not bad for a first timer. Last year, I was among the optimists who were rewarded with clear skies after an iffy afternoon. I got 95 objects. This year I was determined to hit 100, and I felt if I could get M74, I had a good shot at the Holy Grail of 110. As the Marathon approached I got a call from Randy and Grace Ocheltree, who were interested in running their first marathon. We quickly figured out that we live within a mile of each other and made arrangement to convoy down. Later in the week I contacted Dave Steiner who also lives nearby, and thus was born the "Arrowhead Ranch Contingent". We set out in convoy about 3:00 p.m. and arrived at the site about 5:15, Plenty of time to set up, catch a bite to eat and socialize a bit before the fun. Some High Cirrus clouds in the west gave cause for concern regarding the evening twilight objects, but they followed Steve Coe, who left early, home. We arrived too late to see the airplane try to land at the site. Apparently his technique was less than good in taildraggers and he ground looped. Fortunately no one was hurt and he got some assistance in fixing what amounted to a flat tire and took off again, non the worse for the wear. We all set up right near Thad Robosson, Joe Goss, Jack "Messier" Jones, And n "the Pest" Keller. Marshall Dailey, Joe Macke, and AJ Crayon were also nearby. If you're gonna spend the night out in the dessert, These are some nice folks to be with. Soon the sun set and it was time to get busy. Never having gotten M74 this was my first quest. Since I drive a dob, I have to rely on creative telrad hopping to find it in twilight. A week's preparation went into this one object! I noticed on Skymap that a line drawn straight from Saturn to Venus would pass right through M74, which was just 16 degrees above Venus. Conveniently 4 telrad circles. My plan was to put the scope to that position then look for Eta Piceis, and then hop from there, trying to match the field stars. Then I'd try to coax this dim galaxy into view. After about ½ an hour, I still hadn't found it, so I decided to move on and try again. Though others around me found M77 difficult I located and Identified it quite readily, I quickly moved on toe M33, M31 & co, and then got M34 & M76. By now Twilight was making it's last gasp to brighten the sky & the Zodiacal light was still reaching up to the Pleadies. Venus had set by now but Aph Aqr and Beta Aqr were now visible to point they way to M74. Using the Starhop charts In Harvard Penningtons "Year round Messier Marathon Field Guide", affectionatly called the "Red Book", I finally located Eta Pic. Moving Up from there I finally got the Star filed I was looking for. M74 finally presented itself as a slight brightening when the telescope was jiggled. AJ kindly confirmed this. Since he's the coordinator, I took M74 to the Bank! After patting myself on the back for getting the evenings twilight objects I settled into a relaxed routine up to but not including the dreaded Virgo Cluster. Dave and Randy occasionally asked for my help in identifying objects they had yet to see, and I was glad to help. Seems like not too long ago, I was the novice asking everyone for help, now people are asking me. Somehow, this doesn't seem right, but I take it as a compliment and hope I'm as much help to them as folks like Steve, AJ, Joe, Tom Polakis, And Rich Walker were to me. I got ready to attack Virgo about 11:00. A quick snack and some hot tea to perk me up and there were no more excuses. I started at the eastern end, hopping from Vindemeatrix to M59 & M60, I galaxy hopped up to M89 via M58 & Mxx. I then went back down to M58 and worked west to M88. The hop up to M98, M99 & M100 was bit far. I kept getting lost, so I retreated to the friendly confines of Denebola in Leo and work myself east from there. After a couple of tries I finally found them and confirmed them by checking Dave's scope, since he had Goto, I could compare the view in his scope with the eyepiece charts I had made up. So here I am halfway through the nigh and the two main obstacles over and done with and still working on a perfect score. Talk about motivation! With the sky now void of object I haven't bagged, it was time to take a rest. I sat in the car and tried to nod off for a bit, but couldn't, so I took a walk and socialized a bit. Everyone I spoke with was excited about his or her prospects for a perfect score. You could feel the excitement building. It sure seemed to be not a matter if, but rather who and when. I got back to Gert and started looking for the morning objects. I quickly realized that I had forgotten about M85 in Coma Berenices. It was inconveniently located in the dob-hole near the zenith. Never the less, I was able to pick it up pretty easily. The rest of the morning hours were spent picking objects up as the rose. Kinda felt like I was shooting fish in a barrel. By 4:00 I had gotten my goal of 100 but by now 110 was the plan. Ophiuchus and Scorpius went pretty quickly, as did Cygnus, Saggita, and Vulpecula. Scutum and Serpens quickly followed and then the home stretch: Sagittarius. I methodically worked through SGR from north to south, trying to give the more southerly objects time to rise up out of the muck. As I went to get M55, I realized that Dave's truck was in the way and would stay that way for a while. So I did and AJ and just picked up and moved to a better vantage-point. It took a bit of doing but I got M55. Next on to M75. This to me is the biggest pain in the catalogue as there is nothing near it to guide you. Particularly when your main guide is a telrad. Try as I might I just could not locate M75. The same for M72 & M73. I just could not find them. I was sure wishing I had an EQ mount, so at least I could try to find them by sweeping in RA after setting the Dec, but…. By this time those with eq mount's or goto's were getting excited as they had 109 and were waiting for M30 to rear it's head over the horizon. You could hear the excitement mount as M30 was hunted down. Finally, out of a brief moment of silence, "I GOT IT" the voice clearly had an Indiana accent to it. My good friend Joe Goss was the first to nail M30. The rest of the folks nearby quickly followed him. Dave Frederickson became the first person to officially complete a marathon twice. Thad Robosson completed his first marathon with a perfect score. Ken Reeves and AJ finished their first perfect marathons using large aperture dob's, Ken without setting circles! As for myself, I finished with 106. Better than I had imagined, but still a bit disappointed getting so close only to miss by 4. Still I consider the night a success and offer my congratulations to those who finished. As twilight began to light up the morning sky, Dave and I enjoyed breakfast, cooked up on my new camp stove and talked about the amazing evening that was ending. Final tally for the Arrowhead Ranch Contingent was 106 for me, Dave got 108 and Randy & Grace picked up 91. In all, preliminary tally had over 20 getting perfect 110's. Pretty amazing when you consider that worldwide only 4 (including 2 from SAC) had previously accomplished the feat. After packing up, AJ and I convoyed home and enjoyed some nice conversation on the CB's. Seemed to me, we mostly rode back quietly except for speeding driver alerts, after all the evening spoke for itself.