From: Timo Karhula
Subject: My first Messier Marathon (latitude 60N, only binoculars used)
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 15:01:57 +0000

Hallo!  I'm Timo Karhula from Sweden.

I performed my first Messier marathon ever last night.  Since I live at 
latitude 60 N in Sweden, not all of the M-objects can be seen from my 
horizon.  I had logged my 100th Messier object from here, M4, only a few 
weeks ago.  As far as I know, no serious Messier marathons have been pursued 
from Scandinavia before.

I had made lists of the rise, culmination and setting times of each Messier.  
My first object yesterday became M42, when I checked Orion naked-eye from my 
parents backyard at 6:36 pm.   The first binocular M-object became M79 in 
Lepus, which I had not seen from this regular observing site before.  I had 
logged it from my balcony in Vasteras ten years ago, though.  I had decided 
not to use any telescope whatsoever tonight, but binoculars and naked-eye 
only.  I even tried to use handhold 50mm-binoculars as my largest instrument 
(well, one of these is a Canon 18x50 IS).  M79 was indeed glimpsed with 18x50 
at 4deg altitude.  Next objects became M77 and M74 which were not difficult 
now in the beginning of March.  M33 was naked-eye.

During the night I saw for the first time M68 and M19 from latitude 60N.  
This time, I had to use 25x100 and I had to carry all the stuff, including the 
tripod, some 500 meters over the road and railway to be able to view them 
above the distant tree tops.  M68 was at only 2=B0.9 altitude and glimpsed 
only with averted vision in the horizon muck.  I could only view M4 from the 
railway tracks!  Fortunately, no train passed during my observation.  :-)

Before I started with the Virgo-Coma cluster, I had tried to see each Messier 
with minimal aperture.  Many earlier objects were seen naked eye or with my 
tiniest binocular, a 8x20.  I was surprised when I could see M1, M97, M108, 
possibly M109 and all the Leo Messiers with handheld 7x50.  No galaxy in 
Virgo-Coma was particularly difficult in 18x50.  I lost quite a lot of time 
when hunting down M68 and M19 which probably was the first time ever 102 
Messiers had been seen from latitude 60N!  Finally, the dawn appeared but I 
had missed every object in Sagittarius.  If I had not been experimenting with 
the minimum needed aperture, I had certainly had more time with Sagittarius.  
My last object was M26 in Scutum at 5:15 am in the strong twilight.

I logged 83 Messier-objects during 10 hours and 39 minutes tonight.  79 of 
them were seen with at most 50mm handheld binoculars.

I also observed three comets in binoculars within 5 minutes (46P/Wirtanen, 
C/2008C1 Chen-Gao and 17P/Holmes) since they were in the same general 
direction in Taurus and Perseus!

My observation site is the small village Virsbo 150 km NW of Stockholm, 
Sweden.  Geographical coordinates: latitude +59=B0 52', longitude +16=B0 05'.  
The observing conditions were perfect.  ZLM was about +7.0.  Temperature 
dropped from +3.7 C to -3.4 degrees C.  A slight breeze kept the optics from 
fogging up.  Clear weather all night long.

/Timo Karhula