Greg, I might have joined you for part of the night (a marathon is definitely not my thing however) had I not been fighting off a new cold. Virgo is definitely not an easy star hop! But M81/82 is cake; for me, I simply "draw a line" between the bottom back and front lip stars of the big dipper's bowl, and extend it the same distance beyond the lip to the pair of galaxies; easy to spot in binoculars. Rich --- Greg Taylor <astronomus_maximus@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all,
I went to SPOC last night and attempted the Messier Marthon. I was even later than I expected (it was around 11pm by the time I had gotten set up). By 4am (after 60 or 70 objects and a while after everyone else had gone) I was so hammered that I decided to look at Mars for a while (I was having a much harder time than I should have finding globulars in Ophiuchus). Then my confounded cheap k-mart folding chair gave way. I was so tired and ticked off that I just packed up and went home. I might have stuck it out if there had been someone else there to chat with (I always mutter to myself when I do any viewing, but it's not the same).
Part of the reason that I was so tired is that I got lost in Virgo and had to back track quite a bit (I whish that I had brought Uranometria with me, I was just using Sky and Telescope's Messier card). Also, I knew that I was in trouble when I was having a hard time finding M81 and M82 (turns out that I was trying to star hop from the wrong star).
All in all, I had a good time.
Greg
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