Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 21:14:39 -0000 From: Tony George To: spider@seds.org Subject: March 29 Messier Results Enclosed is a text file with my marathon results for March 29, 1998. I saw a total of 101 objects. It was a fairly cold night, but luckily, the wind did not blow and I was able to complete the entire evening. I also did a second marathon on the evening of April 25, 1998, but high haze and smoke reduced the productivity. I only saw 91 Messier objects. I will try to send the results from this second session later. Thanks for encouraging people to do the Messier Marathon. Tony George Umatilla, Oregon Tri-City Astronomy Club, SE Washington **************************************** * 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: _3_. _29_ 1998_ Observer: _Tony George__ Location: _Holdman, OR Lat: _45 52 Long: _119 04 Time Zone: _PST__ Instruments used: __Meade 2120 (10-inch f10 catadioptric)____________ General Comments: __Used digital setting circles to find objects._______ __Observing site has 360 deg hilltop view with one 20,000+ and one 10,000+ __population city with 15 miles to the southeast and west respectively The Object List: ================ No. M# NGC# Con Type Your# Time Comments 1 M77 1068 Cet G S __:__ ________________________________ 2 M74 628 Psc G S __:__ ________________________________ 3 M33 598 Tri G S 1 8:05 PM faint smudge 4 M31 224 And G S 2 8:06 PM normal view 5 M32 221 And G E 3 8:06 PM normal view 6 M110 205 And G E 4 8:09 PM normal view 7 M52 7654 Cas OCl 5 8:20 PM very delicate with one brighter 30-50 stars 8 M103 581 Cas OCl 6 8:23 PM 4-5 bright stars, 15-25 total 9 M76 650 Per Pl 7 8:30 PM dumbbell? double lobed 10 M34 1039 Per OCl 8 8:33 PM stickman cluster (ET) 25 bright stars 11 M45 - Tau OCl 9 8:34 PM ________________________________ 12 M79 1904 Lep Gl 11 8:40 PM barely seen, too low, look for this one sooner 13 M42 1976 ori DN 10 8:38 PM used it to align for M79 14 M43 1982 Ori DN 12 8:45 PM bright star, diffuse halo 15 M78 2068 Ori DN 13 8:50 PM two stars in an emission nebula 16 M1 1952 Tau SNR 14 8:52 PM diffuse, mottled, irregular 17 M35 2168 Gem OCl 15 8:55 PM huge, fills 25mm-100's of stars 18 M37 2099 Aur OCl 17 9:00 PM same size as M36, same # of stars as M35 19 M36 1960 Aur OCl 16 8:58 PM 1/10 stars of M35 20 M38 1922 Aur OCl 18 9:20 PM very similar to M37 21 M41 2287 CMa OCl 19 9:22 PM bright stars but sparse, 100+ stars 22 M93 2447 Pup OCl 20 9:25 PM like M41, slightly fainter stars, 50-100+ 23 M47 2422 Pup OCl 22 9:30 PM 5-7 very bright, 50 bright, 100-200 dim stars 24 M46 2437 Pup OCl 21 9:28 PM nice planetary for extra measure, 100-200 stars 25 M50 2323 Mon OCl 23 9:33 PM scraggely, 100-200 stars 26 M48 2548 Hya OCl 24 9:35 PM scraggely, 100+stars 27 M44 2632 Cnc OCl 25 9:37 PM Beehive -- huge 28 M67 2628 Cnc OCl 26 9:40 PM faint stars, delicate, 100+ 29 M95 3351 Leo G S 27 9:45 PM bright star center, diffuse halo 30 M96 3368 Leo G S 28 9:48 PM star center, less bright than M95, diffuse 31 M105 3379 Leo G E 29 9:50 PM two GC's and galaxy in same field, like M95 and 96 only fainter 32 M65 3623 Leo G S 30 10:00 PM both side by side, E most is more ragged 33 M66 3627 Leo G S 31 10:00 PM E. most is also brighter. Also saw NGC 3628! 34 M81 3031 UMa G S 32 10:42 PM had to realign on Dubhe to find 35 M82 3034 UMa GIr 33 10:42 PM like NGC 3628 only brighter otherwise bigger 36 M97 3587 UMa Pl 34 10:45 PM Yes, a planetary, big in 55 mm 37 M108 3556 UMa G S 35 10:48 PM faint, like M82 38 M109 3992 UMa G S 36 10:50 PM faint, diffuse, bright center 39 M40 - UMa 2St 37 10:54 PM 2 stars, nice to know Mr. M. makes mistakes! 40 M106 4258 CVn G S 38 10:55 PM hint of dark lane, star center 41 M94 4736 CVn G S 39 10:57 PM diffuse, elliptical, star center 42 M63 5055 CVn G S 40 11:01 PM hint of spiral arms 43 M51 5194 CVn G S 41 11:08 PM 2 galaxies w/ spiral arms seen 44 M101 5457 UMa G S 42 11:12 PM large face-on spiral, arms seen! 45 M102? 5866 Dra GS0 43 11:20 PM edge on spiral w/ dark lane 46 M53 5024 Com Gl 44 11:34 PM huge GC, 100s of stars resolved 47 M64 4826 Com G S 45 11:36 PM huge EG, star center, dark lane to N? 48 M3 5272 CVn Gl 46 11:40 PM gigantic GC, 1000s of stars resolved 49 M98 4192 Com G S 47 11:43 PM giant SG edge on, dark lane to E of star center 50 M99 4254 Com G S 48 11:45 PM large tilted face, condensed center 51 M100 4321 Com G S 49 11:49 PM large face-on spiral, bright condensed center 52 M85 4382 Com GS0 50 11:50 PM large star center w/ small companion 53 M84 4374 Vir GS0 52 12:01 AM other of the two, titled spiral star center 54 M86 4406 Vir GS0 51 12:00 AM one of 2 in eyepiece? face on spiral star center 55 M87 4486 Vir G E 53 12:08 AM not huge, no sign of jet, even in 9mm 56 M89 4552 Vir G E 54 12:10 AM faint condensed center 57 M90 4569 Vir G S 55 12:12 AM large spiral face on/tilted 58 M88 4501 Com G S 56 12:14 AM large edge-on spiral, star center+star 59 M91 4548 Com G S 57 12:20 AM faint star center 60 M58 4579 Vir G S 58 12:22 AM face-on SG 61 M59 4621 Vir G E 59 12:25 AM small SG 62 M60 4649 Vir G E 60 12:27 AM star center 63 M49 4472 Vir G E 62 12:31 AM large 64 M61 4303 Vir G S 61 12:28 AM diffuse star center 65 M104 4594 Vir G S 63 12:35 AM stunning edge-on SG w/ dark lane and star center 66 M68 4590 Hya Gl 64 12:38 AM stars resolved w/good eye 67 M83 5236 Hya G S 65 12:40 AM very big, faint SG/ somewhat tilted 68 M5 5904 Ser Gl 66 12:45 AM huge GC, 1000s of stars resolved 69 M13 6205 Her Gl 67 12:50 AM huge, bright, 1000s of stars 70 M92 6341 Her Gl 68 12:52 AM not as bright 71 M57 6720 Lyr Pl 69 1:35 AM ring nebula 72 M56 6779 Lyr Gl 70 1:37 AM faint and small, star resolved 73 M29 6913 Cyg OCl 71 1:42 AM 10 bright stars in OC 74 M39 7092 Cyg OCl 85 2:52 AM very big, 10 stars in finder scope, very bright 75 M27 6853 Vul Pl 72 1:46 AM dumbbell! huge 76 M71 6838 Sge Gl 73 1:49 AM faint, some stars resolved 77 M107 6171 Oph Gl 74 2:15 AM faint, some stars resolved 78 M12 6218 Oph Gl 76 2:20 AM same as M10, fainter stars a few bright 79 M10 6254 Oph Gl 75 2:17 AM lots of stars resolved 80 M14 6402 Oph Gl 77 2:22 AM very faint, only a few stars resolved 81 M9 6333 Oph Gl 78 2:25 AM very faint, only a few stars resolved 82 M4 6121 Sco Gl 79 2:30 AM large, most bright stars resolved, scraggely 83 M80 6093 Sco Gl 80 2:32 AM much smaller, condensed center, stars resolved 84 M19 6273 Oph Gl 82 2:35 AM same as M80, less condensed 85 M62 6266 Oph Gl 81 2:34 AM same as M19, less condensed 86 M6 6405 Sco OCl 87 3:00 AM very large 20-30 stars 87 M7 6475 Sco OCl 86 3:00 AM very large 10+ stars 88 M11 6705 Sct OCl 84 2:43 AM delicate +bonus bright star, >100 faint stars 89 M26 6694 Sct OCl 83 2:37 AM poor, 5 bright stars, 20-30+ faint 90 M16 6611 Ser OCl 88 3:15 AM open, scraggely, 45-50 stars 91 M17 6618 Sgr DN 89 3:17 AM omega nebula! 92 M18 6613 Sgr OCl 90 3:18 AM very poor, 20-25 stars 93 M24 >6603 Sgr OCl 91 3:20 AM very big, many bright, 1000s dim 94 M25 I4725 Sgr OCl 92 3:23 AM big, 40+ bright, 100s dim 95 M23 6494 Sgr OCl 93 3:25 AM big, uniform brightness, 100+ 96 M21 6531 Sgr OCl 94 3:26 AM sparse, 25 stars 97 M20 6514 Sgr DN 95 3:29 AM must be the 10+ bright stars near M21? 98 M8 6523 Sgr DN 96 3:30 AM lagoon or trifid? diffuse neb+ stars 99 M28 6626 Sgr Gl 97 3:32 AM very small, dim, centrally condensed 100 M22 6656 Sgr Gl 98 3:34 AM big, stars resolved 101 M69 6637 Sgr Gl 99 3:38 AM just a smudge near a star ~= M28 102 M70 6681 Sgr Gl __:__ ________________________________ 103 M54 6715 Sgr Gl __:__ ________________________________ 104 M55 6809 Sgr Gl __:__ ________________________________ 105 M75 6864 Sgr Gl __:__ ________________________________ 106 M15 7078 Peg Gl 100 4:13 AM centrally condensed 107 M2 7089 Aqr Gl 101 4:20 AM fuzzy, star center resolved 108 M72 6981 Aqr Gl __:__ ________________________________ 109 M73 6994 Aqr 4St __:__ ________________________________ 110 M30 7099 Cap Gl __:__ ________________________________ *********************************** * * * * * Score: _101_____ 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)