Analysis of Messier Marathons,
as of April 27, 2015

This is second posting of Messier Marathon results and is an update from the last one of 2012, with the additional 3 years of results. For reference the list of results may be found at http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/res_tab.txt from which all the following data has been extracted.

The data provided includes a list of observer results. Unlike the last listing, which included all observers, this one only includes those observers with 3 or more Marathons resulting in 112 of the 753 observers. That's about 15% indicating a large number with only 1 or 2 marathons. This table has number of objects found, number of times 110 was found, number of marathons and observer name. Clearly Don Machholz and Tom Hoffelder have the record with most marathons but Tom is closely followed by Jack Jones. While Don Machholz has found 110 the most George Robinson and the late David Fredericksen have found 3 each. There are a number of folks with 2 so watch out in the coming years. These results are displayed in observer results link.

The next table has to do with average telescope size by year. It includes the year, number of scopes and average in inches and millimeters. It appears the number of telescopes has continued at a high number. Yet years with over 80 telescopes was 2001 and 2007 with 2001 being year with largest average aperature of over 14" or 360mm. This result is found in the average scope link.

Following the scope size are the binocular results. There are 3 new entries for the intervening years and are for 2013 and two for 2015. Still only two folks have seen all 110 in binos and 2 have nabbed 109. The table can be checked for additional results. See the binocular results for more information.

Last the record book. It has only one new addition since the last posting. Ready the drum roll - the addition is for Rick Tejera for finding all 110 objects in a 60mm telescope for the 2015 event. This link, record book, has records for smallest telescope to find from 100 to 110 objects.

I wish to thanks all who participated in marathoning, especially Hartmut Frommert and Don Machholz for without their work on posting the observer results table this study would not have been possible.

Finally if any errors or omissions are found let me know at acrayon at cox.net.
AJ Crayon

• Observer Results
• Observer Scope Average
• Binocular Results
• Observer Record Book

• AJ's 2011 Analysis of Messier Marathons

Hartmut Frommert
[contact]

Last Modification: May 12, 2015