[AZ-Observing] Re: [TAAA_Forum] A Messier Marathon!!!
- From: Mae <ssmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: taaaforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 10:36:13 -0700
Yes, Messier Marathon was great!
We managed to continue one of the Tucson groups that parks together - it
is getting to be quite a tradition. So, we had Andy and Carter battling
and making comments about this beautiful one and about that other.....
Tom was a great addition to our group.
Nic DeMesa and Sierra had their scopes up and were hard at it until
Sierra got too sleepy. We kept waiting but to out relief there was no
chemical smell from Nick's area like the year he burnt out his go-to at
the Marathon.
In spite of sleepiness, I think Sierra made her last year's number of
objects. Sierra's friend, (was her name Julia.. I'm not sure that's quite
right) had her own scope and was persistent - we ought to see if she'd
like to be involved
in TAAA.
And, then there was our honorary member, Hazel - we allow her to be a
Tucson person during the Messier - since she's such a nice addition to
our little group. We always enjoy her so much.
Mae
Quoting Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>:
> Carter and I marathoned together at Arizona City, often racing on
> objects and comparing scores through the night. I had meant to quietly
> work on H400 galaxies in Virgo, but Carter sucked me into marathoning
> with him. Great night with good transparency and for once this winter
> and sping, NO clouds. Seeing was great at sunset with wonderful views
> of Saturn while we waited for full dark. The seeing deteriorated badly
> after dark with cool and warm breezes warring over the site. But
> transparency is what you want for a perfect marathon which is what we got.
>
> I managed to stay ahead of Carter most of the night using my 18" while
> he was using a 10". Acually parts of the marathon are much harder with
> a big scope, particularly the Virgo cluster where a big scope sees all
> of the dimmer galaxies and not just the M's you want. I used the
> setting circles only to confirm objects a few times, so both of us ran
> this one manually. We ran on purist rules, Telrad and charts are the
> only tools allowed! No GOTO!
>
> Later in the night Carter found my weakness, the 18" could not depress
> below 5 degrees elevation, so he could get objects coming over the
> horizon before I did, after that he was ahead most of the time. Except
> a few occasions when guile won out against youthful enthusiasm and
> young, sharp eyesight.
>
> In the end we both scored a 109, the best that was possible with M30
> being impossible. We had to work on M74, M73 and M72 together to be
> sure, but the spottings were confirmed by both of us.
>
> All in all a great marathon!!!
>
> Andrew
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