From acooper@pobox.com Tue Apr 11 22:56:54 2000 Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 21:34:57 -0700 From: Andrew Cooper To: spider@seds.org Subject: Marathon Results A copy of my message on the AZ-observing mailing list, results in the first paragraph, read the rest if you want to... Being one of those scared off by the clouds Saturday I decided to go out Tuesday night and sleep away my Wednesday. I had a day that needed to be used up at work anyway. I saw no use in going out if I couldn't beat my old record of 106. Success, I pushed it to 108!! Of course this being a second run, and having completed my AL messier certificate in the meantime helped a great deal. I arrived at Empire Ranch with the 6" RFT, leaving the larger glass at home. Besides a marathon is a wonderful excuse to use this completely handmade scope that is so near and dear to my heart. M74 was already set when the first stars appeared, M77 was a #?!%#!!, but I got it, less than 10 degrees from the horizon. M33 was lost in the sunset and M32 and 110 were not visible around the barely there fuzz of M31. Many thanks to Steve, who in his report reminded me of the fact that M31 rises again well before dawn, I was ready and waiting for it to cross the horizon. In the end only M74 and M33 escaped me, M33 hurts as I know it well. All in all a very enjoyable night, done with Virgo before 2300, and plenty of time to use the RFT to sweep the milky-way while waiting for more objects to rise. While waiting for M30 I repeated many of the objects. All objects of any doubts were re-confirmed as they rose further from the horizon. Try Eric Karkoschka's book, with it's wonderful detailed finder charts of all the messier objects in a neat small package, I keep my copy in my observing notebook. This worked especially well in Virgo. The wonderful sounds of the desert at night, coyotes howling, owls hooting in the night, the crunching of a gravel road as a dozen illegals walk by. No Kidding! They probably never knew I was there, about 50yds off the road. INS was all over the highway, I let them know the group was headed up Cienega Creek on my way out. An excellent night! -- Andrew Cooper VP Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association Tucson, AZ mailto:acooper@pobox.com http://whitethorn.house.home.att.net