Midlands AC Messier Marathon: Friday March 12th

Hi all,

The Midlands AC hopes to host a Messier Marathon at our Observing Site in Clonminch this Friday night March 12th from 8pm. Around this time of year, there is an opportunity to locate all 110 (or thereabouts) Messier Objects, or M-objects, in one night. French Astronomer Charles Messier was a comet hunter, but often found faint fuzzies that were never identified at the time. There are some exceptions such as The Pleaides and the Beehive star clusters. He catalogued 110 objects. We hope to identify all of them.

On our website www.midlandsastronomy.com there is a chart (*.txt file) you can doenload detailing each object and its location in the sky. This chart is ideal for those of you with programmable GoTo telescopes where you can programme in advance your observing night.

We will meet at The Site from 8pm, wrap up warm and also bring your favourite easy chair, a flask of soup, plenty of pencils and anything you'd like to use to record your observations. Check out the Observing Challenges part of the IFAS website for the Messier Handbook.

If you need directions, I have a map which I will email upon request.

Hope to see you there,

Seanie Morris.

MAC's John Lally has kindly put together an excellent PDF document with details and finder charts which can be downloaded here:

John Lally's Messier Guide

Regards,

Michael.

Thanks Michael and John,

Very informative.

Michael.

A consistently cloudy evening (and light rain in parts of the midlands) meant there was no event. The forecast tonight is less favourable too.
I was talking to John Flannery earlier today, and he mentioned that anyone thinking of tackling the challenge should maybe space it out over a broader period. However, you'd think Murphy's Law would have taken a break. I mean, 8 consecutive nights in a row with fab clear skies, and th one night you actually PLAN to do something... CLOUD.

:dry: