Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2005 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2005 or earlier)

Messier Marathon 2005

The year 2005 will offer an opportunity for the Messier Marathon on the weekend of March 10-11, with new moon occurring on March 10.4. This time it will probably not be possible to hunt down all 110 objects. More information will be added here timely.

On this occasion, it will not be possible to combine an all-planet marathon with the Messier event, but most planets will be visible; only Venus and Neptune will most probably not be possible, and Uranus difficult in the morning. Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we list them below, based on the JPL List of Currently Visible Comets (also note IAU's Observable Comets page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

Comet                         RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag  mag
                                  March 11, 2005      obs.

C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)              00:01.83 +54:15.1 13.0
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1    00:43.67 +12:49.0 15.7  12.5 (has outbursts)
C/2003 K4 (LINEAR)            03:32.48 -16:13.7  9.6  10.5
C/2004 Q2 (Machholz)          07:12.74 +84:52.1  6.6   6.2
C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)            09:55.88 -10:54.0 13.5  13.4
C/2003 T3 (Tabur)             10:12.47 +41:40.5 13.8
9P/Tempel 1                   13:29.82 +11:14.0 12.3  12.7
10P/Tempel 2                  22:45.39 -12:04.8 10.9

The list is RA ordered and thus in the sequence the comets might be observed from evening through midnight to morning. Notable are comets C/2004 Q2 Machholz, which had a nice show as a naked-eye object in January 2005 and is slowly fading to about 6.6 mag but circumpolar at Marathon time, as well as C/2003 K4 LINEAR at mag 9.6; these two, as well as C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), C/2003 T3 (Tabur), and 9P/Tempel 1 are in good observing situation. The other three are very close to the sun and difficult dusk or dawn objects.

Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996, Ikeya-Zhang and Utsunomiya in 2002), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date.

Also, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS.

Messier Marathon Events 2005

Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2005 Messier Marathon Events here.

The 2005 All Arizona Messier Marathon, sponsored for the 13th time by the Saguaro Astronomy Club, will be held on March 12/13, 2005 at the site south of Arizona City. - A.J. Crayon & Jack Jones
Sarawak Astronomical Society, Malaysia is organizing a Messier Marathon this 19 Feb 2004 in Pasir Pandak(Pandak Beach), Kuching, sarawak Malaysia from 7:00p.m to 10:30p.m. For members of the society only. - Ismandy Ali, CISSP
The Treasure Coast Astronomical Society will be hosting its first Messier Marathon the weekend of March 11 - 13, 2005. They have reserved Kissimmee Prairie Preserve, located 35 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. - Patty H. Mayer, Treasure Coast Astronomical Society
SWAP - Sky Watchers Association of Pune (India) - is going to hold its 2005 Messier Marathon from Buttewadi (near Rajgurunagar), 50 km north of Pune on 12-13 March 2005. - Harshad Abhyankar
Sorin Hotea, amateur astronomer from Sighetu-Marmatiei, Romania, has organized a website for nationwide Romanian Messier Marathon, see website. He will try from his home, and four other Romanian amateurs have already subscribed for participating; dates are March 11/12 and March 12/23, 2005.
The Astronomy Club, Ahmedabad, India will hold their Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005.
Also, the Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomers have anounced a Messier Certificate Program. - Manoj Pai, President of the Astronomy Club, Ahmedabad, and General Secretary, CIAA
The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (SFAA) will hold their 2005 Messier Marathon on March 12-13, 2005 on Mt. Tam; they will gather at 4:00 p.m. - Kenneth Frank, SFAA board

Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2005 or earlier, if not already done so, please send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: March 8, 2005