IAS/SDAS Messier Marathon on Friday 12th

I plan to be at the Sugarloaf carpark at 7 on Friday, that will give me time if I have to pack the 12" back into the car and transfer to Ballyraemon.

Astronomical twilight runs from 20.19 to 04.53.

I plan to bring the dob as well as a pair of 10x50 binos and 15x70s. Reading sites on the web it's possible to grab more than 50 Messiers with binos and naked eye alone.

Has anyone set themselves a target? I would like to bag 100, but I might be optimistic.

Paul

Thanks for meeting up guys and it was great to get some observing in despite the generally cloudy conditions. Hope it did clear a bit more after I left at 10:45pm and that the people on the MAC Messier Marathon had some success. The sky clarity was quite good whenever we spotted a clear patch.

For the record, the 15x70mm binoculars swept up;

M 1, M 35, M 36, M 37, M 38, M 41, M 42, M 43, M 44, M 45, M 46, M 47, M 48, M 50, M 65, M 66, M 67, M 78, M 79, M 81, M 82, M 93

Hyades

Cr 65 (star cluster around lambda Orionis), Cr 70 (the Belt of Orion), Cr 285 (5 of the 7 stars making up the Plough)

Havard 71 (an open cluster just above M46/M47)

NGC 1981, NGC 1647, NGC 1746, NGC 2129

Earlier this week I found the following additional Messier objects in the binoculars;

M 13, M 31, M 32, M 33, M 34, M 51, M 52, M 53, M 57, M 64, M 68, M 74, M 77, M 84, M 86, M 87, M 89, M 90, M 92, M 95, M 96, M 97, M 103, M 104, M 105, M 110

As Paul said above, a large number of M-objects can be swept up by binoculars. The observing session on Tuesday night, when the skies were completely clear, was only cut short because of frost on the secondary mirrors of the guy's scopes! If we stayed 'til dawn the number of Messier objects we'd have seen would have been significantly more.

Maybe with the vagaries of the Irish weather we should suggest catching all the Messiers in the month of March instead of a single night? That will allow you do more than just tick them off a list but spend time savouring the views of some of the finest objects in the sky.

Clear skies!

John

Hi John,

It was clear from 12 to 1 and then clouded over again so we wrapped it up.

Thanks to all who turned up,

Michael.

A big thank you to the organisers. It was my first observing session with IAS/SDAS and I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome, the good company, and for the opportunity to peek through their scopes. Seeing Saturn, M13, M97, etc. through the large reflectors was a particular treat - I think I feel a bout of aperture fever coming on. Apologies again for my noisy mount.

Mike

A pity about the weather, but that's Ireland for you.:laugh:

I managed to bag the following using a combination of 12" dob and 10x50 binos.

52, 103, 45, 42, 43, 78, 1, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 93, 47, 46, 50, 48, 44, 67, 95, 96, 105, 65, 66,
81, 82, 97, 108, 109, 40, 101, 84, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 104, 5, 13 & 92.

I would have grabbed 57, by the car was in the way, clever parking or what?

I turned off the GoTo, trying to do it the old fashioned way, this led to some frustration as I couldn't find M101 or M51.

As Mihael Murphy rightly commented on the night, next time I'm bringing a chair as the back got a little tired after a while.

I felt that the sky never really got properly dark, it reminded me of observing during thesummer, perhaps this was due to moisture in the air, or some other explanation.

In the end it was an enjoyable exercise and one worth repeating.

Paul

michael_murphy wrote:

Hi Phil,

Have the ESB actually let your hang gliding club (or anyone else) use Turlough Hill?

Michael.

Hi Michael,

Just home after a week in the Isle of Man, so apologies for the slow reply.

The hang gliding club doesn't fly from this mountain, but I remember being up there with David Moore (AI) some years ago and chatting with the station manager. As far as I can remember he said he would look favourably on requests for access as long as there was evidence of insurance and that we were a responsible group. So there's no harm in asking!

Phil.

PS - I also remember Jed Glover mentioning that he knew one of the engineers working up there... but that was a few years ago also!