Don's 2003 Messier Marathon observing report

Welcome, folks, to the 2003 OVAS Messier ~Mud-O-Ramma~ Marathon!

I arrived a little late and wondering if I could actually make it through the
night as I had been up late the night before. I had finished getting my power
unit in one piece just before running out the door while grabbing last minute
goodies, like the eyepiece case.

Arrived somewhat relieved to find Jeff, Dave T. and Rodger still setting up. As
it turned out I was ready just a little later than all but Dave, but much
sooner than I expected. GREAT!

Started the race with M77. Too much sky glow and moon light. Do I want to waste
time or go on. Go. M74 got wiped out by the moon- didn't spend hardly any time
on that one. Early on I used the 40mm Tele Vue Plossl and the 18MM Tele Vue
Radian and sometimes using the UHC filter on certain objects. After a while I
wisely put the 18 back in eyepiece case and use the 40mm.

The Cave was well collimated and performing great! The sky was very good! Shame
so many missed it. Views were becoming increasingly shorter, but they were
still no less good to great views. After all, this is a race against time. (I
kept telling myself, "Leave it in the eyepiece case, it will be OK. You can
gawk some other time.)

Orion, Leo, Cancer, Lepus, Gemini, Tarus, the Pleadies, Perseus, Auriga, Ursa
Major, and all those other ol' familiar places were going pretty good, some
objects took me a little more time that it did Rodger, but for a while I was
feeling pretty good about the pace.

Rodger came alone like a welcome wagon with food and drink! Thanks Rodger, I
didn't take time to bring anything so now I owe lunch or something. (Good Ol'
Rodger.)

Then came Virgo.... Astronomy is fun, astronomy is fun, astronomy is fun. Lets
see, it shows to put the Telrad right there... and there will be M_____ ,
Hummm, three of them..., no two. Tap the scope some more. Maybe I can use this
chart instead... how about this chart? How many other charts do I need for
this? Confusion and mayhem ran a-muck. Meanwhile, over towards the south,
Rodger was setting up his video stuff. I asked him a question or two, after
all, he had just seen everything in the Virgo Galaxy confusion center. (Did
Jeff and Dave sack out for a while?) Hummm. Rodger was having trouble and would
have to trace it all out like I am having to do to check me. About the time
Rodger was starting to give up the video I was finishing up the galaxy
clusters. Jeff would come over and look at what I was doing from time to time
while I was comparing charts. At least he put the scope back where I had it, at
least I think he did? (He really did.)

Yahoooo! M104 at last! I felt like doing a hat dance, but we were already doing
sort of a clog. Oh good, Hercules, Lyra, Cygnus, and all sorts of places I have
been before and a few not very often. What fun, heading right towards my
favorite summer fun spots (pun intended) Scorpio and Sagittarius. Somewhere in
here I went for a wild goose chase- or more like a swan chase. There was
southern sky glow and I couldn't make out some of the stars the charts showed
to find the swan nebula. Later, after M8, I had a hard time with the Trifid.
Meanwhile Jeff, who had mirror flopped his way though a 220 roll of film, was
giving sky brightness reports. That's OK, I think I can beat the dawn, I know
and really like this part of the sky. But seeing those globulars on the south
or the Teapot was getting really tough.

After extreme effort in that south east glow I finally gave it up with 98
Messier objects bagged in one night plus a short, quick glance at Saturn and
another one or two things. Well pleased indeed! Much fun, Virgo Galaxy Glob and
all! Now I can say most assuredly that I have seen all 110 Messier Objects.

Then we put our stuff away. While I was packing the Blazer Rodger was on the
Defrost detail. Then we took a look at the transportation challenge. Four wheel
drive is a grand and glorious thing. Made it out with no problem and felt real
good to be parked on the road now. Rodger had no trouble either. Jeff... on the
other hand... zzzzziiirrrrrrzz. "Go forward!~" ZZZZzzzz. Rodger and I went
behind his van (Glad it has front wheel drive!) "It's all about momentum, don't
stop! We pushed, he went, then Dave went, and we were very happy.

Folks, if you have never done a Messier Marathon, DO IT. It is such great fun,
especially with folks in OVAS. We had a great time, I bagged a bunch (>3x as
much as I did the first one!) of Messier Objects, had a great time with good
friends and got a lot of lower body and leg exercise pulling my boots out of
the ground every time I went to the chart table. HA HA!

THE DARK SKY GANG RIDES AGAIN!

Webmasters note:   Don bagged 98 messiers!
 

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