Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2008 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2008 or earlier)

Messier Marathon 2008

In the year 2008, Full Moon will occur on March 21, 2008, thus ruining this optimal date for many sites for the Messier Marathon, but leaving two options: The first in early March, and the second near the end of March or early April. The first option with the weekend of March 8-9, 2008 is a secondary one for most latitudes, while the primary option, on the weekend of March 29-30, 2008, offers a good option for "mid-northern" latitudes to hunt down all 110 objects. Note however that for low latitudes, the first date will be the better option.

The 2008 Messier Marathon will perhaps be one of the last occasions to combine a nine-planet marathon with the Messier event, but Neptune will be extremely difficult if at all possible, Uranus also difficult in the morning. Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 may be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., IAU's Observable Comets page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

Comet                       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag    RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                                March 10, 2008            March 30, 2008

C/2008 C1 (Chen-Gao)        03:08.49 +50:38.2  12.0   04:41.92 +36:11.0  11.7
46P/Wirtanen                03:54.84 +28:53.4   9.9   05:39.70 +34:35.4  10.9
17P/Holmes                  04:02.97 +37:34.6         04:32.89 +36:50.7
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1  05:48.93 +29:07.3  15.6   05:55.16 +28:40.0  15.7  Outbursts! (c. 13m)
C/2007 T1 (McNaught)        05:59.90 -28:47.4  13.5   06:13.03 -10:30.7  14.8
C/2007 B2 (Skiff)           12:39.56 +05:58.0  13.2   12:25.19 +04:44.4  13.0
C/2007 W1 (Boattini)        12:41.86 -14:15.5  12.5   12:18.49 -17:04.3  10.1
C/2007 G1 (LINEAR)          18:16.93 -03:45.3  14.1   18:21.04 -05:28.6  13.6

Those south enough can observe some of the following also:

8P/Tuttle                   03:52.59 -56:15.4   9.7   04:43.17 -60:02.5  11.2
C/2008 A1 (McNaught)        05:16.68 -40:41.9  13.8   05:11.70 -37:53.4  13.4
C/2006 Q1 (McNaught)        09:27.17 -45:52.2  11.6   09:25.96 -39:03.7  11.4

For the record: Southerners with large instruments may still try to spot now-faint (mag 19.3) old friend C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp at RA 02:02.84, Dec -83:17.6 (March 10) and RA 02:20.50, Dec -82 53.7 (March 30), respectively!

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 2008

Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2008 Messier Marathon Events here.

On the behalf of the Sociedad Astronomica de Sonora Carl Sagan (SASCS) of Hermosillo Sonora Mexico, Dr. Salvador Aguirre is organizing the 2008 Messier Marathon, scheduled for March 29/30, 2008, at location Lat: 29:19:10N, Long: 110:49:2 W. - Salvador Aguirre
The 2008 All Arizona Messier Marathon is scheduled for April 5/6, 2008. This event is sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 16th time), and will be held again at the site south of Arizona City. - A.J. Crayon & Jack Jones
Also see SAC's 2008 All Messier Marathon announce.
The TUVA Astronomy Club and Astronomy Club of Tulsa have announced that they will be holding their annual Messier Marathon at the TUVA Astronomy Club site outside of Coucil Hill, OK. The date of April 5-6 was chosen so that there would be no hindrance from the moon. It has been calculated that all but M74, M77 and M33 will be able to be seen. - David Stine
The United Astronomer Clubs of New Jersey are having their second Messier Marathon this year. - Jim Norton
The Astronomical Society of Las Cruces (ASLC) are planning their Messier Marathon 2008. Primary date is March 8; back-up date is April 5. Check their website for more details. - Richard Richins
The Las Vegas Astronomical Society (LVAS) will be conducting their annual Messier Marathon the nights of March 7 and 8, 2008. The event will be held in the camp ground of Temple Bar Marina, AZ on Lake Mead. The turn off is just north of the 20-mile marker on US Highway 93 south of Hoover Dam. - John Heller
The San Francisco Amateur Astronomers (SFAA) will hold their 2008 SFAA Messier Marathon on Mt. Tamalpias in Marin County on March 8-9, with an alternative date of April 5-6, 2008. As a highlight, it is scheduled that Monsieur Messier will make an apparition during this event (actually Ken Frank dressed in a Charles Messier outfit). They will have Don Machholz speaking on "Charles Messier & the Messier Marathon" during their general membership meeting on March 19 at 8:00 pm (see announce). - Kenneth Frank, SFAA president
Sorin Hotea, a computer teacher and amateur astronomer from northern Romania, in Sighet, is organizing again this year the National Messier Marathon in Romania. Romanian astronomers are requested to contribute their events and results to his "Maratonul Messier 2008" website. - Sorin Hotea
The Centennial Observatory is holding its fourth annual Video Messier Marathon on March 28/29, 2008. The event begins at 7:00 pm MDT (01:00 UT March 29) with a 1-hour presentation about Charles Messier, his catalog, and the marathon, followed by live video images from their telescopes as the sky gets dark enough (around 8:15 pm to 8:30 pm MDT). This year, for the first time, they will be streaming their video images live to the internet via ustream.tv. See their website and the video streaming. In event of bad weather, they will try again on the following night (March 29/30). - Chris Anderson
The Agrupacion Astronomica de Cadiz "Hercules" will try their Messier Marathon in Tavizna, Spain during the night of Saturday-Sunday April 5-6, 2008. - Alberto Romero

Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2008 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
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Last Modification: April 1, 2008