[Chaos-l] JCST MM long-form: 2013/03/09-10

[Jon Stewart-Taylor]

Hi all.  After spending much more time sleeping than i expected,  
here's the long-form report on my March 2013 Messier Marathon attempt.

Since i was unable to attend the Yamacraw observing session on Friday,  
i decided to try a MM on Saturday.  Forecast was for good conditions  
basically all night.  It's been several years since i tried a MM, and  
my previous highest total was 107.  I thought i'd try to set a fairly  
reasonable goal of 100 total Messier objects over the night.  I was  
planning on pretty much writing off the first few objects in the  
evening and the last half-dozen or so in the morning.

Starting out after it got dark enough to actually see the stars in  
Andromeda, i gave only a minute or so to trying to find M74.  I've  
never spent a lot of time observing it anyway, and at mag 9.2 in not- 
quite-dark, i didn't think i'd get it, and didn't.

I spent about the same amount of time on M77, and to my surprise, i  
found it.  Being half a magnitude brighter than M74 apparently makes  
quite a difference.

M33 i spent almost 5 minutes on.  I knew exactly where it was, i could  
see the guide stars around it's position, but i couldn't see it.  The  
low surface brightness combined with the not-completely-dark just made  
it impossible to see.  Under normal circumstances, i'd have kept after  
it, but this was a Marathon, and there were other objects to chase  
before they were out of reach.  The last time i Marathon'd, i'd spent  
too much time chasing M33 and lost M32 and M110, so i abandoned M33  
and moved on.

M31 was obvious, M32 clear, and M110, well, it was findable.  Good  
thing i didn't spend more time on M33.  After that things went  
smoothly for about two hours while i collected another 35 Messiers  
with no real difficulty.  Even M81/82, which i usually have trouble  
with, were fairly easy.  The only real issue was M40, the double star  
in UMa.  Since it's boring, i never look at it except during MM.   
Because it's boring (and dim) it's not plotted in Bright Star Atlas  
2000, which i was using for quick reference.  Since by this point, i  
needed to wait a bit for M101 to rise higher (low surface brightness  
makes it tough when it's low), i took a half hour break.  My total at  
that point was 39 Messiers.

While i was inside, i got a finder chart for M40 and girded my  
metaphorical loins for the first of the two hard stretches by printing  
a detailed map of Virgo with Telrad circles.  Back at the scope, i  
worked through the last of the UMa objects, then into CVn and Com.   
Dew was becoming an issue, but i had electricity and a hair dryer.  So  
far, no big deal.  But, next up was the Virgo cluster of galaxies.

Thank goodness for the detailed map and hair dryer.  Frost was  
starting to form, and i needed clear Telrad and finder to galaxy hop  
through Virgo.  It was slow going, since i normally go through Virgo  
when it's much further to the west, and kept turning the wrong way and  
having to start over at M59/60 (that Y-shaped asterism nearby is easy  
to spot in the finder).  I don't know the galaxies well enough to  
sweep one up and go "oh, that's M100".  It's worth mentioning that  
somebody had started burning a section of the gameland (i'm assuming a  
planned burn, since i didn't hear any sirens), and the smoke combined  
with a thin fog to reduce the LM to about 4.8.  Most of the NGC Virgo  
galaxies weren't visible, so i couldn't use them for landmarks.

After about an hour i made it through all the Virgo Messiers.  My  
total was 62 objects, and the next couple of objects were in the lower  
part of Hydra, too low to easily find.  Time for another break, and  
maybe see if i could find my toes, which had apparently vanished from  
inside my shoes.

When i got back out side (My toes had in fact still been where they  
belonged, they'd just stopped taking my calls) the scope was pretty  
heavily frosted.  Frequent application of the hair dryer kept it off  
the Telrad, finder, and eyepieces.  On the other hand, the fog had  
cleared, so the LM was better.  Other than the cold, i worked through  
Hydra, Hercules, and the front half of Scorpio (plus that pesky galaxy  
in Draco assumed to be M102) with no real issues.  Now it was time to  
wait for Ophiuchus and the back half of Scorpio to rise high enough to  
go through M6/M7 and the Ophiuchus globulars.

I don't know if it was because the late hour was catching up to me, or  
if my white scope  didn't work as well as my red one, but it took me  
nearly an hour to finish off Ophiuchus.  Next on the search list was  
the Sagitarius Milky Way objects, which weren't up high enough to work  
with yet.  If i'd been more functional, i'd probably have hit the  
Cygnus area objects while i waited, but mostly i just wanted to get in  
and warm up some more.  So, i took a 1/2 hour nap after having  
collected 74 objects total so far.

Sagittarius was ready when i went back out, and i managed to make my  
way up the steam, but it's always a bit confusing with the rich star  
fields, and it took more time than it should have.  I managed to pick  
up M57 (the Ring nebula), and M29, but M39 took longer than it should  
(i'm detecting a trend here), and looked a bit washed out.

At this point, i looked east, and saw definite brightening: dawn was  
coming.  I looked at the remaining 10 objects on the list, and decided  
enough was enough.  Put the scope into the shed to thaw out, and  
staggered off to bed.

When i woke up enough to go through my observing record, i found the  
final tally went down by one when i realized i'd accidentally skipped  
M16.  So final score was: made an attempt at 99 Messier objects,  
missed 2, for 97 total.

Closing thoughts? Thank goodness for electricity on-site.  Without it,  
i'd have had to give up somewhere around Virgo due to frosted  
finders.  And, the electric heating pad on the observing chair kept me  
out longer than i'd have managed without it.  Also, I'm out of  
practice!  I've spent much of the last year either observing the AL  
double-star list, or going through the "little" NGC objects on  
particular Sky Atlas 2000 charts.  Next time i do the MM, i'll need to  
put in a little time re-familiarizing myself with the Messiers,  
particularly M74/77 and the Sagittarius region.  A little more  
preparation probably would have added at least 5 objects to my total.   
Finally, i think this must have been the earliest in March i've ever  
tried MM.  I don't remember having to wait for objects to rise as  
often as i did this time.  Usually there's a good break in the middle,  
but i don't remember having to wait on Ophiuchus and Sagittarius before.

J.
-- 
Jon Stewart-Taylor: 	e-mail: joncst at earthlink.net  	Twitter:  
@Jon_c_s_t	Phone: 910-602-1307
Cape Fear Astronomy: http://www.capefearastro.org/
Chapel Hill Astronomy: http://www.rtpnet.org/chaos