Messier Marathon -- Start Your Planning

[JayTee]

The weekend of March 18th is the weekend to use if you want to attempt a Messier Marathon!

Here are some links if you're interested.

http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html
https://10minuteastronomy.wordpress.com ... -marathon/
http://calgary.rasc.ca/darksky/messierplanner.htm

[messier 111]

thx for the tip .

[Lady Fraktor]

Undecided if I want to do the Messier or Double Star... decisions...

[messier 111]

ps, if you ever see messier 111, you are an excellent observer.

[helicon]

I hope it's clear on the 18th. Forecast for scattered showers which, if anything is an improvement to the weather.

[kt4hx]

ps, if you ever see messier 111, you are an excellent observer.

I have seen it! Oh wait? Ah shoot - that was Melotte 111 in Coma Berenices. Oh well!

[helicon]

I saw Messier 111 - it was the Double Cluster which somehow was missed by Charles.

He did however, note Messier 73, an asterism of four stars in Aquarius. Don't know what he was thinking....

[kt4hx]

Messier did know of the double cluster since it was known from antiquity. There is a lot of speculation about Messier's motivations for including certain objects and not others. We will never truly know his full intent. Some say he was collecting objects that could be confused for comets (since he was first and foremost a comet hunter),. Then there are those who do believe he was indeed cataloguing deep sky objects. Anyway, his list is what it is, for its good parts and not so good parts.


In terms of something like M73, in the scopes of his day, the little knot of stars may have appeared nebulous to him because he was unable to resolve them. Even today we can see what seems like nebulosity in some clusters that is nothing more than light scatter due to our inability to resolve all the individual stars. NGC 2362 (Tau Canis Majoris cluster) is a prime example of this.


Some folks ask why he added things like M42, M44 and M45 when those also have been known since antiquity. Some opine that he added them to bring his number up to 45 for publication. Ultimately we don't know his motivation in regard to such things. We are only left to ponder certain aspects of his compiled list. I've found the best thing is not to overthink it too much, and just enjoy that he left us a good list for beginners to gain experience in deep sky observing. We all cut our observing teeth on his list and then move on to more challenging goals. But we can revisit his work any time we wish, bringing back fond memories of when we first started out, and to gauge just how far we've come as observers. With that in mind, I applaud your contributions Monsieur Messier, no matter your real motivation.

[pakarinen]

I doubt I could pull an all-nighter anymore, but there's often a livestream with observers in the EU and US, so you can start / end at times different from your own location or fast forward if you're watching a replay.

Add: Lowell Observatory is doing one, so I'll probably watch part of the stream and then the replay later.

[Makuser]

@kt4hx "I applaud your contributions Monsieur Messier, no matter your real motivation". Hi Alan and I agree with you, as the logging of the Messier Objects is a kind of "rite of passage" in amateur astronomy. And not to forget the contributions of his colleague and collaborator Pierre Méchain.

[messier 111]

ps, if you ever see messier 111, you are an excellent observer.

I have seen it! Oh wait? Ah shoot - that was Melotte 111 in Coma Berenices. Oh well!

I assure you that I am not Melotte 111 .

[messier 111]

I saw Messier 111 - it was the Double Cluster which somehow was missed by Charles.

He did however, note Messier 73, an asterism of four stars in Aquarius. Don't know what he was thinking....

he did not note messier111, because he had no idea who I was.

[messier 111]

Messier did know of the double cluster since it was known from antiquity. There is a lot of speculation about Messier's motivations for including certain objects and not others. We will never truly know his full intent. Some say he was collecting objects that could be confused for comets (since he was first and foremost a comet hunter),. Then there are those who do believe he was indeed cataloguing deep sky objects. Anyway, his list is what it is, for its good parts and not so good parts.


In terms of something like M73, in the scopes of his day, the little knot of stars may have appeared nebulous to him because he was unable to resolve them. Even today we can see what seems like nebulosity in some clusters that is nothing more than light scatter due to our inability to resolve all the individual stars. NGC 2362 (Tau Canis Majoris cluster) is a prime example of this.


Some folks ask why he added things like M42, M44 and M45 when those also have been known since antiquity. Some opine that he added them to bring his number up to 45 for publication. Ultimately we don't know his motivation in regard to such things. We are only left to ponder certain aspects of his compiled list. I've found the best thing is not to overthink it too much, and just enjoy that he left us a good list for beginners to gain experience in deep sky observing. We all cut our observing teeth on his list and then move on to more challenging goals. But we can revisit his work any time we wish, bringing back fond memories of when we first started out, and to gauge just how far we've come as observers. With that in mind, I applaud your contributions Monsieur Messier, no matter your real motivation.

I will try to find an answer to this dilemma.

[messier 111]

I doubt I could pull an all-nighter anymore, but there's often a livestream with observers in the EU and US, so you can start / end at times different from your own location or fast forward if you're watching a replay.

Add: Lowell Observatory is doing one, so I'll probably watch part of the stream and then the replay later.

same for me , .

[helicon]

I saw Messier 111 - it was the Double Cluster which somehow was missed by Charles.

He did however, note Messier 73, an asterism of four stars in Aquarius. Don't know what he was thinking....

he did not note messier111, because he had no idea who I was.

I was making a joke....

[messier 111]

I saw Messier 111 - it was the Double Cluster which somehow was missed by Charles.

He did however, note Messier 73, an asterism of four stars in Aquarius. Don't know what he was thinking....

he did not note messier111, because he had no idea who I was.

I was making a joke....

same with me , sorry .

[pakarinen]

Emerald Hill Obsy is doing one tonight:

Let's try a first round at a Messier Marathon tonight beginning at 8pm ET. I'm a bit concerned that we will lose Saturday night's clarity. Clouds are starting to crop up in the forecast. Just click to https://www.youtube.com/@EmeraldHillsSkies and look for the live stream. [...] We probably won't be able to see quite *all* of them, but we will hope to come close - in one night.