Date: Mon, Apr 2, 2012 From: Jiri Kubanek Subject: Messier marathon 2012 Hello, I am sending results of Messier Marathon of West Bohemia 2012: Messier marathon of West Bohemia 2012 (March 23 - 25) Two nights at this weekend was not so good weather, several observers watched several tens of Messier objects. But in private marathons there were some interesting results this year. Firstly, in classical marathon: Jiri Kubanek (me) „ran“ Marathon by refraktor 93/1000 mm at three nights in March. I saw 100 or more objects all nights. The best night was on March 19/20, 2012, when I observed 103 of Messier objects and I compared our last year´s record. At latitude of 49.7N I missed only morning objects M69, M70, M72, M73, M75, M55 and impossible to observe M30. Secondly, Michal Rottenborn and Jiri Polak devised one hour Messier sprint in 2003. Michal Rottenborn „ran“ the sprint with Somet-monar 25x100. He found 56 objects between 20:15 and 21:14 UT on March 16/17, 2012. It is very interesting discipline for „sprinters“ or young amateur astronomers. Our website Messier 2012 in the Czech language on http://www.astro.zcu.cz/cs/clanky/messier/14/ Jiri Kubanek