Congrats on finding some many objects. I have not found all the Messier objects yet, so I am not ready for a marathon. Perhaps next year. --- daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> wrote:
The weather has been very good for astronomy in March. Even the moon was out of the way.
On Wednesday I went to the U of U star party and looked at Jupiter, Saturn, the Trapezium and some double stars with Dan Burn. There was a large crowd of interested students. These Wednesday night events are at the Physics Building on the roof when the weather is clear.
Thursday night Rich and Tyler met me at the Pit n pole in Rush Valley. These guys have their priorities straight. Up until midnight and then go to work the next day. Wind was a problem early but Mercury was very high and bright. Rich bagged another 27 objects towards his Herschel 400 and Tyler captured a nice view of M78. It was first light for the year for my telescope.
Friday night was the Messier Marathon at Stansbury Park and the weather started great and stayed great all night long. I had only planned to stay until weather or fatigue made me quit, but things stayed great until sunup.
This was my first attempt at a marathon. I caught the early ones except for M74 and M77. These were lost in the cirrus clouds to the west. Mercury punched right through the clouds and showed a very small half phase at 179x in a 17.5 telescope. Many of the winter objects were also visible in 10x50 and 20x80 binoculars. After 11:00pm I had finished everything west of Leo. I took a break on Saturn and Jupiter, and then plunged into the Comma and Virgo Clusters. Things got slow after 2:00am while the sky slowing turned around above me, but there were several bright meteors. Things became very busy as twilight took hold. The Mountains to the East and the sky glow from Salt Lake City made me wait until rising objects were very high in the sky before I could see them. At 6:00am the show was over as I struggled to find M16. Some day I will do this from a darker site with better south and east horizons. Final score 94 objects.
Clear Skies
Daniel Turner
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