Don's  Messier Marathon Advice

Marathon Viewing:
I didn't get all 110 Messier objects the other night, but there are certain
things I could have done differently to have gotten more. You know what they
say about hind-sight...

1. Use a wide, true field of view eyepiece. I did this, using my 40mm Plossl to
find objects.
2. Go easy on using other shorter focal length eyepieces. Early on, I used my
18mm Radian after finding some objects. Great views, but it takes time to
switch eyepieces and so on. I soon figured out that if my purpose is to bag as
many Messier objects as possible, I should reserve higher power views for
proper identification problems and such, thus providing more time for hunting
and less for wowing at the pretty sites. That's for other observing sessions.
3. Go easy on the use of filters. Same thing as higher power eyepieces. If
needed for identifying some nebulae, by all means use a filter. But for
marathon viewing, it's a time eater.
4. Make visits to other's scopes, and have other visitors. Keep my visits to
other's scopes limited to proper identification of objects and likewise, enjoy
longer views in later sessions. I did really good with this one! I stayed with
my scope most of the time.
5. Learn the Virgo Galaxy Cluster neighborhood well before any marathon
viewing. I didn't...

Finders... I'll always be a Telrad user. Wonderful gadget. I'm also a hard
advocate for having 50mm finder scopes. (I'm spoiled and will never use
anything smaller, personally.) I use them both. I used this combination almost
continually the whole night, but especially when in question due to low horizon
sky glow. Telrads obviously will not penetrate the glow like a good finder
scope can, and admittedly, there's only so much a finder will cut through the
glow, but it's better than a Telrad. Other times, the combination worked in
glorious harmony using the Telrad to get close and a quick glance in the 50mm
finder scope to dead center the object. At the telescope eyepiece the object
would be dead center most of the time. (See Virgo below...)

Rodger uses a 50mm finder scope with a right angle Amici prism. [sic, this gives a "correct image" so that the finder scope view matches your star charts] Amici prisms make correctly oriented images. I think this combination is probably ideal.

Books and Charts: Dave Tolley brought to my attention an article in S&T May 2001 issue. I just started astronomy slightly before that time so luckily I have that issue. Article is titled, "A Toehold in the Virgo Cluster" by Sue French. This article is going to the copy machine and will be a permanent part of my notebook.
(Thanks loads, Dave!) Rodger did read and use this article before. [sic, this guides you to a "T" shaped asterism that helps you bag 3 Messier galaxies in Virgo quickly]

[sic, other things which were nice to have on hand were: a planisphere (to know what objects were up when), a list of which Messiers to go after and in what order such as the Sky and Telescope Messier Marathon Checklist ,  a good sky atlas - I use "Sky Atlas 2000", and a book to identify the objects - we used Steven James O'Meara's "The Messier Objects"]


 

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