Messier Marathon 2008
The gods were apparently determined that CAS not be able to do a 2008 Messier marathon. During the new moon window early in the month, Art and Mike began an attempt on the evening of Sun. the 9th—it started all right despite the need to do joint operation of the telescope due to the broken R.A. locking knob, but clouds shut them down by 10pm. On Monday the 24th, Art noticed the sky had cleared at sunset and decided to try as much of a marathon as possible before moonrise, only to find upon reaching the observatory that an Astro 102 lab was taking place and would not get done until late enough that the early evening objects would mostly be too low. Two days later, a third attempt was stopped before ever starting by clouds moving in exactly at sunset after a completely clear day.
Art made one last attempt on Sat. the 29th, a good clear, but extremely cold, night. As with last year's marathon, only the 40mm wide-angle lens was used as being a "faster" eyepiece, i.e., objects like the Crab Nebula that are nearly impossible to see in regular eyepieces are definitely visible, if faint, in it. Also like last year, as many non-Messiers as practical were to be located, to take the place of those objects too washed out by light pollution or otherwise unable to be seen. (In particular, no attempt was made to find Ms 74/77/33/110.) Finally, Art hoped that time could be gained by getting as many evening objects in binoculars as possible.
Although the evening began with what seemed an auspicious omen (a magnificent pass of the ISS almost overhead just after 8pm), the attempt was defeated, primarily by equipment problems. Well over an hour was lost when the dome became stuck at the bad dead spot in the northwest while attempting to get M52, M76, et al. Mike very generously left an event he was covering for Cornell Cinema to help get the dome moving again—he should therefore get joint credit on the marathon such as it was, since the attempt would have died right then otherwise. However, the concern was that any other attempt to get the circumpolar objects would again risk a dome seizure due to another known dead spot in the northeast; thus, another dozen targets had to be abandoned. Growing haze at low altitude prevented M83 and M61 from being found, even with a good bit of effort. Finally, as the night progressed, the R.A. calibration wheel began to stick, presumably from the cold. By 2am, it had reached the point that further locating would have to be done either by recalibrating the wheel for each target, or else by strict star-hopping without any reference to the R.A. wheel. As he was experiencing bad back pain by then, he finally conceded defeat to the gods just after 2:30am, having logged 44 Messier objects and 11 non-Messiers.
Here is the log of objects and the time found. Non-Messier objects are ordered by letters. Observations marked "bin" were made with the 11x80 binoculars; all others were made with the 12-inch refractor.
1. M 79 2035
2. M 31 2039
3. M 32 2039
A. NGC 869 2046 bin (Double Cluster,
B. NGC 884 2046 bin called by some M111-112)
4. M 103 2047 bin
5. M 38 2048 bin
6, M 36 2048 bin
7. M 37 2048 bin
8. M 34 2048 bin
9. M 45 2048 bin
10. M 42 2048 bin
11. M 41 2049 bin
12. M 46 2049 bin
13. M 47 2049 bin
14. M 93 2050 bin
15. M 44 2050 bin
16. M 50 2052 bin
(dome failure)
C. NGC 1973 2103 bin \
D. NGC 1975 2103 bin | Orion's Sword clusters/nebulae
E. NGC 1981 2103 bin /
17. M 35 2138 bin
(dome back in operation just before 2200)
18. M 43 2200
19. M 78 2210
20. M 1 2215
F. NGC 2392 2222 (Eskimo/Clownface Nebula)
G. NGC 2903 2226 (Gal. in Leo)
21. M 95 2238
22. M 96 2239
23. M 105 2240
H. NGC 3384 2240 (Gal. in Leo)
24. M 65 2245
25. M 66 2245
I. NGC 3242 2256 (Ghost of Jupiter Nebula)
26. M 68 2318
27. M 104 2347
28. M 60 0028
29. M 59 0030
30. M 78 0031
31. M 89 0034
32. M 90 0035
33. M 88 0048
34. M 91 0051
35. M 87 0055
J. NGC 4478 0055 (Gal. in Vir)
36. M 86 0101
K. NGC 4435 or
4438, unsure 0101 (Gal. in Vir)
37. M 84 0104
38. M 100 0116
39. M 98 0124
40. M 99 0126
41. M 85 0138
42. M 49 0142
43. M 3 0155 bin
44. M 13 0156 bin