TheSkySearchers

Greetings All,

Well, it is that time of the year again. Glad you all made it around the Sun one more time. We are coming into Messier Marathon season. For those who are not familiar with this activity, simply put, at the new moon in March it is possible to view all 110 Messier objects in one night (based on your latitude). I now live far enough North (47°N) that all 110 Messiers are now not viewable from my observing site. So I will attempt to get all that are available to me based on the whims of the weather gods.

This year's new moons in March occur on the 2nd and the 31st (a "blue" new moon?). The new moon on the 31st is better placed for a complete marathon. The link below shows a chart that provides the number of objects you can see from your latitude based on the day of the month in March.

Here is the link to an earlier post that gives you all the tools you need to understand and plan your very own Messier marathon.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7173&p=61756&hilit=marathon#p61756

If you do decide to plan and attempt this marathon, please keep us posted on your progress and accomplishments. Remember, all the Messiers you observe count toward the Messier 35, 70, and 110 badges. Remember to keep notes on your observations, (one-liners are more than good enough for this purpose).

Have fun,

I am planning to do the ASSA 100 during our Gansvlei star party on 24-26 June 2022, the ideal date would be new moon 29 June but that would be on the next week Wednesday. The ultimate date would be if a new moon falls on Winter solstice, which is on Tuesday 21 June but Saturday, 25 June is the best we can do this year. The next "new cold moon",new moon on winter solstice, will take place in 2039! About 7-10 objects would be very difficult to observe and those would be just around sunset and sunrise, Orion has to be observed just before sunrise, so M45,M42 and M79 is going to be close! Only 2 club members have done this back in 2014 so I am "milking" them for tips and information. I am writing 4 tours for my Meade Audiostar that would cover the 100 objects in the right sequence that should give us the best chance to observe them, weather permitting. This will take place in the middle of our winter so temperatures could go as low as -10°Celsius...we hope not!