Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 From: Willie Strickland Subject: Messier Marathon results 2006 I planned my attempt at the observing field at the Turner Research Station of the Central Texas Astronomical Society. http://cleardarksky.com//c/PaulMeyObTXkey.html 31.6816 N 97.67463 W UTC-6 I used a 10" Orion Dob & Pennington's Messier Marathon book in addition to Equinox planetarium software and Astroplanner to record the observations. I am a member of both the Central Texas Astronomical Society and the Austin Astronomical Society. http://www.centexastronomy.org http://www.austinastro.org I will be happy to send you my log if you want it. 3-25-2006 106 observed --------- I setup at TRS around 600 pm and got ready. I had forgotten my observing chair and my knit hat, other than that I was good to go. Lots of warm layers. The trees around the observing field make it difficult to view anything that is below 10-15 degs. I had to move my scope around several times just to get a glimpse through a gap in the trees in order to bag an object. Very beautiful night. I estimate the transparency as clear (4 out of 5) and seeing was very good most of the night. I ended up viewing 106 of the Messier objects. There are 6 that are very close to the horizon at sundown and I missed M77, M74 and M33 in the evening as they were so close to the trees and/or the sun I never could get them. I missed M30 in the morning for the same reason, but got all the rest. I looked for M30 for about 30 minutes without success. Even though it was very close to the rising moon, I still thought I could spot it. But I never did. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work too due to the mechanics of this site. I moved my scope about 5 times to a spot which allowed me to see an object or two and then back to the main spot. That combined with the fact that I didn't have my observing chair and had to stoop a lot meant my back was killing me by the time I finished. I got home about 8 am, took a long, hot shower and went to bed. -- Willie Strickland