Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2025 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2025 or earlier)
  • 2025 Messier Marathon Results

    Messier Marathon 2025

    In the year 2025, New Moon will occur on Saturday, March 29, 2025. Consequently, the best date and primary weekend for the Messier Marathon 2025 will be on March 29/30, 2025, with a secondary occsion being a week earlier, on March 22/23, 2025 (see the Messier Marathon Dates). According to Tom Polakis' investigation, on the first occasion, attampting a full score of 110 could be possible between 16 deg and 40 deg Northern Latitude, while on the secondary, earlier occasion, it will be possible between 8 deg and 35 deg North. For both dates, the northern limit comes from M30, and the southern limit is due to M110.

    Messier Marathon Events 2025

    Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2025 Messier Marathon Events here. Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

    If you have undertaken. Or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2023 or earlier, if not already done so, pleae send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

    Extracurricular Activities

    While it is the goal of the Messier Marathon to observe as many Messier Objects in a night as possible, it is sometimes convenient and enjoyable to combine the Messier Marathon with some other observational activities, in case some time is left during the night session. In the following, we propose some options to select from:

    Deepsky enthusiasts can look for additional clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. While you can certainly pick and observe whatever you like, we also provide a list of additional deepsky objects to select from (also available with data).

    It is always delightful to add to the Messier Marathon the observation of as many of the planets as possible. This year, on the primary, second date, Venus, Saturn, and Neptune will be impossible and Mercury very difficult, while on the first, secondary occasion, Mercury, and again Saturn and Neptune will be missed.

    Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., Seiichi Yoshida's Visual Comet lists for the northern and southern hemisphere, Skyhound's Comet Chasing page, and the Fachgruppe Kometen list): 

    Comet                         RA   (2000.0)    Dec  mag Con  RA   (2000.0)    Dec  mag Con  Comments
                                March 23, 2025              March 30, 2025
C/2022 E2 (ATLAS)             01 30 48.6 +48 15 23 14.4 And  01 33 16.6 +48 01 36 14.4 And  El. 51/46, ~12m
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann      09 40 11.3 +10 35 01 15.7 Leo  09 38 22.1 +10 42 10 15.7 Leo  ~13m, outbursts ~11m
C/2021 G2 (ATLAS)             15 34 31.2 -13 04 06 15.9 Lib  15 33 42.2 -12 11 07 15.9 Lib  ~13m
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) 20 25 51.1 +17 01 58 13.2 Del  20 25 54.8 +18 15 35 13.3 Del  ~12m
    Southern hemisphere observers will have en extra one to try: 
    C/2024 G3 (Atlas)             00 34 38.3 -42 26 16 13.3 Phe  00 48 16.9 -43 09 17 13.6 Phe  ~12m, El. 44/47
    Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996, Hale-Bopp in 1997, Ikeya-Zhang and Utsunomiya in 2002), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date. Also occasionally, a supernova of brightness available to amateur telesopes may have flashed up be spottable in time (like SN 1998S in NGC 3877, SN 2002ap in M74, SN 2006X in M100, SN 2012aw in M95, and SN 2014J in M82 in their years of appearance).

    This year, of the "first" four minor planets, (1) Ceres will be close to the sun and practically impossible. (2) Pallas and (3) Juno are possible but unfavorable, so that only (4) Vesta is a possibly attractive object. 

    Planet                 RA   (2000.0)   Dec   mag Con  RA   (2000.0)   Dec   mag Con
                         March 23, 2025                 March 30, 2025
(1) Ceres              22 58 47.2 -14 57 09  9.2 Aqr  23 09 00.6 -14 02 52  9.2 Aqr  El. 23/27
(2) Pallas             20 25 32.7 +08 06 50 10.5 Del  20 32 24.8 +08 52 56 10.5 Del
(3) Juno               16 08 36.7 -07 21 51 10.8 Oph  16 08 02.6 -06 44 38 10.7 Oph
(4) Vesta              15 14 41.2 -06 44 16  6.7 Lib  15 13 56.0 -06 19 26  6.5 Lib
    For convenience of interested observers, we also give the positions of the major planets here: 
    Planet                 RA   (2000.0)   Dec   mag Con  RA   (2000.0)   Dec   mag Con
                         March 23, 2025                 March 30, 2025
Mercury                00 15 15.1 +05 21 01 +5.2 Psc  23 55 35.9 +01 50 24 +3.7 Psc  El. 5/10
Venus                  23 55 04.7 +08 38 36 -4.2 Peg  23 41 13.2 +06 13 43 -4.1 Psc  El. 8/13
Mars                   07 30 53.8 +24 43 46 +0.2 Gem  07 39 35.5 +24 13 08 +0.4 Gem
Jupiter                04 52 06.3 +22 11 07 -2.2 Tau  04 56 24.7 +22 19 02 -2.1 Tau
Saturn                 23 37 31.5 -04 31 33 +1.1 Aqr  23 40 40.5 -04 11 49 +1.2 Aqr  El. 9/15
Uranus                 03 26 48.5 +18 33 21  5.8 Tau  03 28 01.9 +18 37 52  5.8 Tau
Neptune                23 59 41.9 -01 24 34  7.8 Psc  00 00 40.2 -01 18 20  7.8 Psc
Pluto                  20 24 46.5 -22 48 18 14.6 Cap  20 25 19.1 -22 47 43 14.6 Cap

Moon                   18 37 37.3 -28 21 21 -9.9 Sgr  00 59 24.5 +08 16 52 -4.9 Psc  El. 84/8
    Moreover, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS.

    Please send me any results of your Messier Marathon for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

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    Hartmut Frommert
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    Last Modification: October 27, 2024