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Year-Round I I Messier Marathon , Field Guide I with Clrmp/Ete Maps, Charts and Tips Ta Guide You to Enjoying the Most Famous List of Deep-Sky Objects

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Year-Round I I Messier Marathon , Field Guide I with Clrmp/Ete Maps, Charts and Tips Ta Guide You to Enjoying the Most Famous List of Deep-Sky Objects I 1 The Year-Round I I Messier Marathon , Field Guide I With clrmp/ete maps, charts and tips ta guide you to enjoying the most famous list of deep-sky objects I HrarvardC. Pennington Contents Chapter 1: What is r Messier Marathon? ................... em.~~lw*Cm*I**wmICLaI .......... 1 Ordinary*Maxi and March Messier Mamthans ........................................... 2 Why You're Running the Mwathon .............................................................. -7 Whvd You Need ta Know the Sky ................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Mesier and Messier Marathons .............................................. 7 F;~si-Forwadto the 1960 s ......................................................................... R Chapter 3: Memicr Marathons All Year 1,oatg .................................... ...... 11 How Many Messiers Cm1 Sce This Month'? ............+.............................. 12 Chapter 4: Strrttwy and Tactics ................... ......*... .I......................=.15 Find a Good Site ....................................................................................~.... 16 Marathon at New MOOTI.............................................................................. 19 Watch the Weath~r..............................................*........................................ 19 Learn the Finder Constellations ............,.. .................................................... 20 Know Your Te! 'elescope .................................................................................. 21. Learn to find Sky Objects ..................................... .......... ..*a 23 PTan for Success ......................................................................................... 22 Chapter 5: Learning the Night Sky .................-.- ..................................... 25 Signpest Scar9 ................................................................................=............. 27 Signpost Constellations .......................................................A....................... 29 Chapter h: Calibrating Your Telescope ..........+..... ,., ........ ..................... 41 Aligning.&, the Finder ..................................................................................... 41 Calibrating a Telrad Rnder .......................+.....+.......................................... 43 Calibrating a finder ..................... .. ............. .................. 44 Calibratlng an Eyepiece ............................................................................. 45 Which Way is "Up" ........................................................................+........... 46 Chapftr 7: Locat in g the Messier O'hjeds .................................................. 51 The Geometric Method .............................................................................. 50 The Geometric Method: A Finder Scope W thou t a Tci md .................. ..... 53 * The Geometric Method Wth Alternative Finders ................... ..LI ................ 5 7 Chapter 8: The Mm.rier Objects--An Overview *.., ,............ .l.....m..m......ST Gidmies ..................................................................................................~... 58 GIo~uIsClusten .............................. ......,... ...., ............................................ 58 Open Clusters ......................................+...................................................... 59 NeBFuIIil - Diffuse ...........................~.......................................................... 59 Nebula - Planetary ................... .... .......... ....... .......... 160 Mjscell anems ............................................................................................ 60 TFle Messier riMist&e-s9' ............................................................................. 601 Di lficulty in Finding .................................................................................. €11 Diffificultv in Seeing .....+..................................,........................... ........+...+....62 Difficulty i.n Identification ..............................................................~..........862 Saluti~ns..................................................................................................... 62 A Second Chance? ..................................................................................... 43 aapkr9: HOWto WR the Charf5 *m#+mm~mm+mm*mm~+mm+rmfl~rbC-cc#~)I~~P~rP+#+P+e++~+m~~~~~~m~ Finder Charts TOT "One PQWW''Find mmwvm.~w.~~.~~~.~.+cm~~-L*~*~~m~ma**mm~mm~cma+mmm~m71 Appendix A: Th e Messier's Catalog ..................................... rFq.p.*+...+*..++.*w 185 Appendix B: My Messier L6g m~w~.~~~~~~~.~~*~*m*nm~**wa-cL~~~m-mma.mm=*mm~m-mm*mm~~mm~wmw~~~~1.89 Index ...*............... r~~r~c.c*~~**+p~qq~Lanb*-Lbm+~m*~mm~~mm ............. 19-1 Introduction ob Stevens, Ken Tholowhite, Larry Wa.mer, Lance McKay and 1 wem the 'QiIdale Aswonomers." Only Lance hd a telescope. It was Ba huge 8 or 10-inch equatarially mounted Newtonian with a tar- nislzed silvered mimthat was, as I recall, in need of collirnation. At 13 or 14, none of us had a car, so we used the telescope in his backyatcl. We were an "astronomy club" with only one telescope. so Boh organized "meteor watches." For two years we doti fully charted meteors. We did a pre-tly ,good job of it. too; Bob would gather the data into a lhundle and send it off to someone who w~ullduse it. Tn ti me the "Oildale Astronomm" driftd apart, but J a! wap mainmimed my interest in astronomy. In 1969, I bo9h.tk a used Sesi XOmm refractor from a friend. Over the pars I would occasionally do some casual "duffer style" ob- serving, hut 1 always entertained hethought that one day I would kcome in- vdved in amat~ura.xtmnamy again and be: sen'o~about it. That day came in the spring of 1985.1 hauled out the old SOmm re- fnctor, went through the heminpa, cleaned it up. got out my collection of as- tronomy bwks and bought the current mapazincs. Charley Trapp, my good friend. hda pained look on his face - 1 sensed that he didn't want to get involved in, or with, another of my adven- tures. Charley had only a vew+ slight passing interest in astronomy, but I canned him into spending a few evenings&- in the backyard with me and the telescope. ]It wasn't long befom aperture fever set in and J was the proud owner of a Celestron CR-Plus and a lot of trinkets to go along with it. Ry this time Charley was a IittIe more interested, and I made him an offer he couldn't refuse on the XOmm refractor - hc wasn't hooked yet, but the deal was enough that it made having the scope worthwhile. The CE didn't cure L my aperture fever, and I bought Shamlr, a 17%-jnch Coalter Dobsonian. Now I had two telescopes: one for phota,mphy and another for visual ob- serving. Tn August of 1986, I joined The Pornma VaVey Amateur Astrono- men (PVAA). Between August and December 1 attended on1 y one meeting and none of the star parties. Then I decided to "get serious" abut getting se- T had Ihedand read of the Messier Marathon, but assumed that I was not advanced enough to attempt it. In February of 1987, Dave Thompson, the PVAA secretary and newsTetter editor, suggested that we have a Messier Marathon. Here was &TI bpp~rt~nityto learn a lot id a short time. 1 had 30 days-.I to get ready. I had penonally Irxlated fewer than forty of the Messier ohjccts. 1 was unable eirher to locate them or to identify them if h could find them! Obi- ously, I h.ad a lot of homework to do andl time was short. Wow successfuI was I on my first try? One hundred eight out of one hundred 'en Messier objects. I missed MT4 in the evening twilight and M30 in the dawn ItwiIight. If someone had only told me of the diffisulties I would have with these two objects and how to find them in the twilight. I beIieve 1 could have gotten all 1 10 objects on my first tr)r, On that p~~tic~llarnight. finding all 1 10 objects was pssible as some had located M74 in the evening twiright, and one pnon located M30 in dawn's twilight, although no one person gat all 111) objects. T~WQof the marath~nef~made use of my fist crude charts and methods for a solfd 97 and 99 ohjects on their first try, Like mel neither had located, on their own. mQre than Forry of the Messjers, and neither knew the sky any better than 1 did. I'm ernbam3zed to tdl yw how Tittle I knew when I decided to tackle my first marathon-but it was a won- derful experience. With this book 1 wiIT take you through every step and every detail that you w i 11 need to ctlmp lete your first March Messier Marathon success- ful!~,and. I hope. you will feel the same thril.1 and sense of accomp~ishment that 1 felt. what about my f&nd Charley? Well, he got s little dose of apmre fcver, too. Now he awns a 10-inch C~ultezDohsonian in additiron to the 80mm refractor. Hc is prctty pleased with himself after getting 99 Messiess in his first Marathan. I'm pleased, too. What is a Messier Marathon? he best definition of a Messier Marathon that T know of was pm- posed by members of the Amateur Astronomers oFPittsbu~gh.They called it " . .an informal competition to locate Ithe most Messier ob- jects by .a singIe observer during a dusk-to-dawn Marathon." You cam do a .Messier Mmathon with any telescope. with any number of observers, at any time ofthe year, and it" always lots of fun. Sure, you'll fight bag!: and wind and cold. hnr you11 soon know the sky better than yau ever thcau.ght you could, The Messier objects are 1 TO prominent deep-sky objects discovered bym the great French comet
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