Learning the Deep Sky with a Messier Marathon

I have been trying to see all the Messier Objects on and off for many years. I read about folks getting together for a Messier Marathon. But it was not until I joined the San Antonio Astronomical Association (SAAA) that I ran square into a group that said they were going to get together as a club on the Messier Marathon weekend for a night of observing.

A number of years ago, staying up all night to look at the stars was one of those things that was "way too hard". That was back when I slept better. These days, in my mid 50s, getting up a couple times a night is just normal. Last fall, with my love affair with the stars just starting, I tried mixing my nocturnal wandering with a star observing session in my back yard. I found two things that early fall morning. First, my neighbor across the back fences never turns his back porch light off. Second, the sky sports a different set of stars in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, I knew that fact with my head. But I had never experienced the fun of looking at the morning stars that would be evening stars many months hence.

One roadblock to the idea of an all night marathon was licked. I found that I could have fun looking at stars in the middle of the night and early in the morning.

But, could I really find all the Messier objects in a night? Last summer, I was thrilled when I was able to identify a dozen Messier objects in an evening of observing. I watched amazed as my new computerized "go to" scope slew its way from one object to another. After a while, the noise of the motors got old as I waited with less and less patience for the scope to move from this object to that one - sometimes turning in a maddeningly slow, nearly full circle just to go from one half of a constellation to the other half! When I converted to a setting circle scope and brought along a long printed page of settings for the evening's objects, I was able to speed it up just a little - but my maximum number of objects for a night was still under twenty.

I found that the secret to going from one object to another quickly was to a) know where the Messier object was, and b) use a Dobsonian reflector with a Telrad finder to point the scope at each part of the sky that contained a Messier object. It was late November when I got this together and began finding objects quickly with a new Orion XT10.

When I joined the SAAA at Thanksgiving, there was already talk about a Messier Marathon in March. I decided I would make a go of it and continued getting my skills and my mind ready for the event.

The first skill was to get good at star hopping from stars that I could see to a piece of sky where there was an object that I could not see directly with my eyes. A great practice object was M1, the Crab Nebula. Even with my urban backyard sky, I was able to find it quite easily. The Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra was another good easy practice object.

But some of the Messier objects required seeing background stars that were dimmer than third magnitude. Fourth and even fifth magnitude stars are really helpful if a star hop is to be easy and fast. That means practice in an area with dark skies - where 5th magnitude stars are visible. It also meant finding observing times away from the bright moon - for the moon makes all those dim stars disappear even in the best dark sky location. The astronomy "Mecca" I found was Hill Country State Natural Area, ten miles outside Bandara, TX. It was only 40 minutes from my house, and the sky was very black except for a low dome of light in the east caused by San Antonio and maybe Bandera. In the little dipper, I could see stars down to 5.7 magnitude. That meant that the background sky was dark enough to see dim objects, like galaxies - and there sure are a lot of galaxies in the Messier list.

There are other great places within a reasonable drive from my house to see stars. Garner State park is 80 miles away. And if a long weekend presents itself, Big Bend or Ft Davis are only 6 hours away. I also received invitations to two private locations with very dark skies. That is one of the great benefits of meeting fellow amateur observers in a local club.

I have just gotten back from my third overnight during which I practiced the Messier Marathon. I did two practice runs near the new moon in January, and this latest one in February. For each one, I needed to spend the night out in the observing field. Making provisions to camp - or at least to take naps is important to me - I still can not contemplate staying up all night without sleep. I have used a camping hammock twice and last night I slept in the bed of my pick-up truck. Sleeping in the truck has the advantage that I am next to the scope and can get up for a half hour of observing and then jump right back into the warmth of my down sleeping bag.

For last night's session I went to a private field near Fredericksburg, TX. A couple of fellow observers were already set up for the evening when I arrived. This photo shows Yogi with three of his telescopes. As the sun set, we talked about what our goals for the evening's observing would be. (Yogi is the source of the photos in this blog post - thanks Yogi!) After talking for a bit and looking at a very pretty crescent Venus through the white refractor, I went back to my observing area and started finding the evening Messier objects as soon as the twilight let me begin.

I have learned a few lessons about running the Messier list over these practice sessions. First, it is important to have a specific plan for going from one object to another. Having specially constructed charts with Telrad circles already marked on them really helps. Fortunately, a great set of charts has already been created for the Messier Marathon and it can be downloaded directly from the Web.

What I am using is the Star Hopping Guide to the Messier Marathon by Rob Hawley. This can be found at http://www.robhawley.net/mm/. Rob has been producing a version of this file specific to that year's Messier Marathon for several years. As I have used that set of charts (actually last year's version) I have learned a few tricks for finding objects. I have added some lines for triangles that Rob did not put in his guide. I have added a couple eyepiece views for hard to find objects. In short, I have personalized the guide.

However, as I have practiced the marathon my skills have increased. I still remember the thrill of getting all the way through the Virgo cluster of galaxies with firm identification of all the Messier objects. I have learned how to nap for a couple hours and then get up and do an hour's worth of observing a number of times during the night. I have learned to log my findings on a digital voice recorder instead of paper. And mostly I have learned where in the sky all those 110 objects are.

In last night's practice run, I saw 103 objects. That was all the objects that I could see until sunrise interrupted my session. Of the six objects in the Messier list that I still needed for an Astronomical League pin before the session, I was able to log five. That means that I have now seen 109 of the 110 Messier Objects. Whee! In another month, the sun will allow me more of those early morning objects (though it may keep me from seeing a couple of the evening ones that are easy now...) All the SAAA needs to do now is to lock in crystal clear weather for the marathon.