Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2026 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2026 or earlier)
  • 2026 Messier Marathon Results

    Messier Marathon 2026

    In the year 2026, New Moon will occur on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Consequently, the best date and primary weekend for the Messier Marathon 2026 will be on March 21/22, 2026, with a secondary occsion being a week earlier, on March 14/15, 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 7 deg and 35 deg Northern Latitude, while on the secondary, earlier occasion, it will be possible between 8 deg and 29 deg North. For both dates, the northern limit comes from M30, while for the primary (second) date the southern limit is due to M110, and for the earlier secondary date to M52.

    Messier Marathon Events 2026

    Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2026 Messier Marathon Events here. Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

    If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2026 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, only Jupiter and Uranus are in favoryble observing positions. Pluto is possible but perhaps difficult in southern Capricornus, while Mercury, Venus and Mars are in elongations quite close to the Sun so that only bright Veuns is easy in the evening, Mars and Mercury difficult in the morning. Saturn and Neptune come into conjunction close to the marathon dates and therefore, stay definitely impossible.

    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, Fachgruppe Kometen list), and the BAA comet section: 

    Comet                         RA   (2000.0)    Dec  mag Con  RA   (2000.0)    Dec  mag Con  Comments
                                March 22, 2026                 March 15, 2026

24P/Schaumasse                15 26 18.0 +05 05 08 11.3 Ser  15 28 35.8 +05 25 58 11.9 Ser
29P/Schwassmann- Wachmann 1   11 11 34.8 -02 26 33 15.6 Leo  11 14 34.2 -02 42 35 15.6 Leo  Outbursts ~11m
88P/Howell                    21 42 10.9 -16 29 06 14.5 Cap  21 17 44.6 -18 14 12 14.5 Cap  El. 38 (Yoshida: 11m?)
235P/LINEAR                   17 00 19.6 -16 35 23 16.2 Oph  16 52 22.7 -17 09 09 16.3 Oph  Yoshida: 13m
240P/NEAT                     04 43 20.3 +32 07 51 16.3 Aur  04 30 21.3 +31 10 20 16.2 Per  Yoshida: 12m
C/2024 E1 (Wierzchos)         04 09 35.3 +05 56 43  9.2 Tau  04 09 35.3 +05 56 43  8.6 Eri
C/2025 L1 (ATLAS)             15 11 03.5 +18 49 41 14.4 Ser  15 28 18.9 +09 27 32 14.4 Ser
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS)         22 33 34.4 +19 05 01 12.3 Peg  22 29 28.4 +18 36 54 13.2 Peg  El. 35/28 (Yoshida: 12m)
    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, (2) Pallas, and (4) Vesta will be close to the sun with Pallas and Vesta definitely and (1) Ceres practically almost impossible, only for faint (3) Juno will be a reasonable possibility to observe (in constellation Aquila). Positions, brightness and elongation for these objects are given here: 

    (1) Ceres                     02 07 11.3 +07 30 06  9.1 Cet  01 57 26.8 +06 21 31  9.1 Psc  El. 32/36
(2) Pallas                    23 09 13.2 -00 24 13 10.1 Psc  22 59 55.3 -00 53 13 10.1 Psc  El. 14/10
(3) Juno                      19 49 41.3 -09 46 32 11.2 Aql  19 41 39.6 -10 19 59 11.2 Aql  El. 64/59
(4) Vesta                     22 33 03.1 -12 45 11  8.2 Aqr  22 19 30.7 -13 51 11  8.1 Aqr  El. 26/23
    For convenience of interested observers, we also give the positions of the major planets here: 
    Mercury                       22 38 19.5 -07 50 46  0.9 Aqr  22 42 00.6 -05 37 44  2.3 Aqr  El. 23/14
Venus                         01 11 09.0 +06 39 10 -3.9 Psc  00 39 22.5 +03 06 00 -3.9 Psc  El. 18/16
Mars                          23 06 06.4 -06 55 52  1.2 Aqr  22 45 34.8 -09 02 49  1.2 Aqr  El. 16/15
Jupiter                       07 04 54.0 +22 57 51 -2.3 Gem  07 04 10.6 +22 58 36 -2.3 Gem
Saturn                        00 17 49.6 -00 23 05  0.9 Psc  00 14 38.0 -00 43 48  1.0 Psc  El. 9/4 (Conj March 25)
Uranus                        03 43 06.0 +19 32 26  5.8 Tau  03 42 05.4 +19 29 01  5.8 Tau
Neptune                       00 07 27.0 -00 37 00  7.8 Psc  00 06 28.7 -00 43 18  7.8 Psc  El. 1/7 (Conj March 22)
Pluto                         20 32 06.5 -22 53 38 14.6 Cap  20 31 27.5 -22 54 41 14.6 Cap  El. 56/50

Moon                          02 24 45.2 +19 13 20 -7.6 Ari  20 29 13.1 -22 05 39 -8.2 Cap  El. 39/50
    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: January 28, 2026