Yes, its that time again... for some its an annual rite of spring, for others it’s a test of star-hopping skills and for the rest of us it’s a chance to lose a night’s sleep freezing our hoo-ha’s off while frenetically searching for faint fuzzies. So what is a Messier Marathon? Its an attempt to observe all 110 Messier deep-sky objects in 1 night. Theoretically it is possible to accomplish this feat, however from our latitude, under the absolute best conditions you should be able to log better than 100 of these deep-sky beauties during a 1 night (dusk to dawn) observing session in mid-March. Now, there is bit of a catch to this whole Marathon thing... you need to observe the Messier objects in a particular order and there are a few variations to the “Correct Order” but from the most part they all get the same results. Below is a list I made using a Freeware program that I will demonstrate at next month’s meeting. There are many website that contain lots of info on Messier Marathon and one of my favorites is Richard Bell’s at: http://www.richardbell.net/marathon.html
Order | Object | Type | Order | Object | Type | Order | Object | Type | Order | Object | Type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | M74 | GALAXY | 30 | M96 | GALAXY | 59 | M89 | GALAXY | 88 | M19 | GLOB CLUSTER |
2 | M77 | GALAXY | 31 | M103 | OPEN CLUSTER | 60 | M58 | GALAXY | 89 | M17 | NEBULA |
3 | M79 | GALAXY | 32 | M81 | GALAXY | 61 | M59 | GALAXY | 90 | M18 | OPEN CLUSTER |
4 | M32 | GALAXY | 33 | M82 | GALAXY | 62 | M3 | GLOB CLUSTER | 91 | M24 | STAR CLOUD |
5 | M31 | GALAXY | 34 | M105 | GALAXY | 63 | M49 | GALAXY | 92 | M21 | OPEN CLUSTER |
6 | M110 | GALAXY | 35 | M108 | GALAXY | 64 | M60 | GALAXY | 93 | M20 | NEBULA |
7 | M33 | GALAXY | 36 | M97 | PL NEBULA | 65 | M61 | GALAXY | 94 | M25 | OPEN CLUSTER |
8 | M41 | OPEN CLUSTER | 37 | M65 | GALAXY | 66 | M53 | GLOB CLUSTER | 95 | M8 | NEBULA |
9 | M42 | NEBULA | 38 | M66 | GALAXY | 67 | M104 | GALAXY | 96 | M62 | GLOB CLUSTER |
10 | M43 | NEBULA | 39 | M109 | GALAXY | 68 | M13 | GLOB CLUSTER | 97 | M28 | GLOB CLUSTER |
11 | M45 | OPEN CLUSTER | 40 | M98 | GALAXY | 69 | M92 | GLOB CLUSTER | 98 | M22 | GLOB CLUSTER |
12 | M76 | PL NEBULA | 41 | M99 | GALAXY | 70 | M5 | GLOB CLUSTER | 99 | M15 | GLOB CLUSTER |
13 | M34 | OPEN CLUSTER | 42 | M106 | GALAXY | 71 | M57 | PL NEBULA | 100 | M75 | GLOB CLUSTER |
14 | M93 | OPEN CLUSTER | 43 | M40 | DBL STAR | 72 | M12 | GLOB CLUSTER | 101 | M73 | ASTERISM |
15 | M78 | NEBULA | 44 | M100 | GALAXY | 73 | M10 | GLOB CLUSTER | 102 | M72 | GLOB CLUSTER |
16 | M50 | OPEN CLUSTER | 45 | M84 | GALAXY | 74 | M56 | GLOB CLUSTER | 103 | M70 | GLOB CLUSTER |
17 | M47 | OPEN CLUSTER | 46 | M85 | GALAXY | 75 | M107 | GLOB CLUSTER | 104 | M69 | GLOB CLUSTER |
18 | M46 | OPEN CLUSTER | 47 | M86 | GALAXY | 76 | M14 | GLOB CLUSTER | 105 | M55 | GLOB CLUSTER |
19 | M1 | SN REMNANT | 48 | M88 | GALAXY | 77 | M29 | OPEN CLUSTER | 106 | M54 | GLOB CLUSTER |
20 | M35 | OPEN CLUSTER | 49 | M94 | GALAXY | 78 | M39 | OPEN CLUSTER | 107 | M30 | GLOB CLUSTER |
21 | M36 | OPEN CLUSTER | 50 | M64 | GALAXY | 79 | M80 | GLOB CLUSTER | 108 | M7 | OPEN CLUSTER |
22 | M38 | OPEN CLUSTER | 51 | M63 | GALAXY | 80 | M27 | PL NEBULA | 109 | M6 | OPEN CLUSTER |
23 | M48 | OPEN CLUSTER | 52 | M51 | GALAXY | 81 | M71 | GLOB CLUSTER | 110 | M2 | GLOB CLUSTER |
24 | M37 | OPEN CLUSTER | 53 | M101 | GALAXY | 82 | M9 | GLOB CLUSTER | |||
25 | M67 | OPEN CLUSTER | 54 | M102 | GALAXY | 83 | M4 | GLOB CLUSTER | |||
26 | M44 | OPEN CLUSTER | 55 | M52 | OPEN CLUSTER | 84 | M11 | OPEN CLUSTER | |||
27 | M68 | GLOB CLUSTER | 56 | M91 | GALAXY | 85 | M16 | NEBULA | |||
28 | M83 | GALAXY | 57 | M87 | GALAXY | 86 | M26 | OPEN CLUSTER | |||
29 | M95 | GALAXY | 58 | M90 | GALAXY | 87 | M23 | OPEN CLUSTER |