From: Harshad Abhyankar Subject: From "Akashmitra", Pune, India: Messier Marathon 2011 report Date: Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 5:19 AM Akashmitra Association from Pune, India conducted the annual Messier Marathon in the night of 5-6 March 2011 from Kadus, a village about 55 km north of Pune. There were 18 participants, some of whom were just learning to handle a telescope. Most of us used 4"-6" Newtonians with only manual controls. The western sky was cloudy at sunset. Though it cleared up soon afterwards, some haze lingered for a considerable time into the night. The light pollution also was not as low as we wanted. As a result, many people missed some of the evening galaxies although they were high in the sky on this date. The sky was much clearer after midnight, though the last few objects were pretty close to the eastern horizon for us to spot. Eventual scores were: Team of Sarang Oak + Sumedh Bhide + Shantanu Kokate: 99 Harshad Abhyankar (first attempt from memory): 94 Bharat Nowal + Kabir Sahane: 70 Tushar Purohit + Dr Jigjinni: 61 Satish Pagare: 58 Dhruv Paranjapye: 41 Hrushikesh Kulkarni: 24 Abhishek Waghmare + Rounak Kharait: 24 Manik Limaye + Sana Sohoni + Puja Jatkar + Sumedh Kumar: 22 Dhruv, age 15, needs a special mention. Although he was not handling a telescope for the first time, this was his first Messier Marathon. He had prepared very seriously for the event and that reflects in his score. regards, - Harshad.