Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 20:23:37 -0700 From: AJ Crayon [now: acrayon@mindspring.com] To: Hartmut Frommert , Christine Kronberg Subject: Arizona Messier Marathon 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon The 2001 All Arizona Messier Marathon, held Saturday, March 24th, was the most successful one to date being attended by about 91 folks, 79 scopes, a comparable number of vehicles, a Kit Fox and one very vocal mocking bird. Attendees came from Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, Ohio and Ontario (yes Canada!). Oh yes there were many from Arizona. The short story is 25 folks found all 110 objects! Twenty others found 100 or more and 11 more found less than 100 followed this up. See the final standing for more details. Many Arizonans, including myself, started out the festivities by arriving a day early for some extra observing fun. Amongst them was Bill Ferris who used the time for practicing for the marathon and wound up finding all 110. He also found 110 the next night; talk about dedication! Has anyone observed all 110 on one night and followed it up with the same feat the following night? While Friday night was excellent many began to question their wisdom during the day Saturday as the high thin clouds moved in and stayed. Steve Coe left about mid afternoon believing the weather wouldn't get any better. A few hours later and around 30 minutes before sunset we were all rewarded with a clearing sky and to the west at that. Special thanks to Steve for taking the clouds with him. Naturally everyone was quite happy, then came sunset followed by evening twilight and the marathon was on! Jennifer Keller, Jack Jones and others treated the landowner, Ray Farnsworth and his son-in-law Eric Kinney to their own private star party. They were continually surprised by the views through all telescopes. Using my new 14.5"f5.2 telescope, M77 was more difficult than expected but after my nervousness was replaced with averted vision it was easily seen. After that it became much easier for the remainder of the catalog save M30. Just before morning twilight it was not visible, but then I was not used to using averted vision. Once my vision was averted it was seen but was tougher than M77. This was first time I found all 110. After having finished the Virgo cluster and had some time I walked around the observing field. I got a chance to view M101 and M3 through Brian Skiff's 70mm Pronto. Needless to say the stars were pinpoint images all around the field of view, including the very edge of the field. We also spent a few moments discussing the merits of NGC5866 replacing M102, Messiers' duplicate observation of M101. Margaret McCrea from Rose City Astronomy Club set up her 60mm refractor next to me, we exchanged some nice views between our scopes and had a couple of nice short discussions. If only we had more time to talk, but this wasn't the time. Perhaps another time? Gary Garzone of Longmont Astronomy Club, Colorado almost never made it to the marathon. He was visiting in Phoenix, decided to attend and called my house early Saturday for directions. Fortunately my wife found the directions on the computer and e-mail them to him. Ken Schmidt, from Cleveland, Ohio was just so happy to be amongst so many observers, he was justifiably proud to have found all 110. The smallest optics to see M77 and M74 was Brian Skiff's 70mm Pronto. The smallest to see M30 was Marshall Dailey's 5" SCT. Of special note was Brent Archnial observing all 110 in 11X80 binoculars, a testament to the kind of night sky all enjoyed! David Frederickson bagged all 110 for the second time, the first being 1996. There are just too many people to mention everyone but here is a list of astronomy organization from outside of Arizona, Longmont Astronomy Club, Colorado; Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton, New Jersey; Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, London Chapter, Ontario and the Rose City Astronomy Club, Oregon. From Arizona there were our old standbys and some surprise new ones. Amongst all of them were East Valley Astronomy Club, Tucson Amateur Astronomical Association, Sun City West Astronomy Club, Raytheon Amateur Telescope Makers, Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, Stone Haven Observatory, Lowell Observatory, the USGS Flagstaff and of course Saguaro Astronomy Club. Now for the credits. First to Ray Farnsworth for letting us use his grounds for our observing site and for making a long dusty road passable for family sedans and large motor homes alike. Everyone who showed up regardless of wheather they participated in the marathon or not. The weather, Steve Coe for taking the clouds with him. Jennifer Keller for circling the entire site to gather counts names and locations used in this article and still took part in the marthon and Jack Jones for much appreciated help. THANK YOU ALL!!!! AJ Crayon Jack Jones Messier Marathon Coordinators Saguaro Astronomy Club Phoenix, Arizona Results List NUM NAME SCOPE ORGAN. MISSED OR NOTES. 110 Kirk Alexander 16"N AAP 110 Brent Archinal 11X80 binos CAS 110 Jim & Delia Brix 16"DOB TAAA 110 Andrew Cooper 6"f5.1Newt TAAA 110 AJ Crayon 14.5"f5.2DOB SAC 110 Marshall Dailey 5"MakCass SAC 110 Bob & Pat Davidson 8"f6DOB EVAC 110 Steve & Rosie Dodder 8"SCT SAC 110 John Evelan 20"f4DOB EVAC 110 Bill Ferris 10"f4.5 none saw 110 day before 110 David Fredericksen 12"f6DOB SAC 110 Jack Gelfand 16"N AAP 110 Joe Goss 10"SCT SAC 110 Jack Jones 14.5"f5Newt SAC 110 Harold Judson 9.25"SCT EVAC 110 Dean Ketelsen 11.25"Newt TAAA/SAC 110 Frank Kraljic 10"f5.4DOB EVAC 110 Derrick Lim 8"f4Newt EVAC 110 Tom Polakis 10"DOB EVAC/SAC 110 Ken Reeves 20"f5DOB SAC 110 Thad Robosson 8"f6Newt SAC 110 Sam Rua 20"f5DOB TAAA 110 Ken Schmidt 14.5"f4.3DOB CV 110 Doug Smith 8"SCT TAAA/RATM 110 Matt Spinelli 8"SCT EVAC 109 Sam Herchak 13.1"Newt EVAC 74 109 Mike Lerch unknown SAC 74 109 Brian Skiff 70mm Pronto Lowell Obs30 109 Wayne Thomas 20"DOB SAC 74 109 Charles Whiting 13.1"DOB SAC 30 109 Don Wrigley 16"f5DOB EVAC 77 108 Chuck Akers 8"DOB SCW 74, 30 108 Kevin Bays 8"DOB TAAA 74, 30 108 Scott Kroeppler 6"f8 AL 74, 30 108 Rick Rotramel 16"f4.4Newt SAC 74, 30 108 Ken Sikes 10"f6.3SCT SAC 74, 110 108 Dave Steiner 8"SCT SAC 74, 30 108 Chuck Young unknown SAC 74, 33 107 Tom Mozdzen 14"DOB EVAC 74, 33, 30 107 Steve Ratts 7"MakNewt TAAA/RATM 72, 73, 30 106 Rick Tejera 8"f6DOB SAC 75, 72, 73, 30 105 Bill Lofquist 8"DOB TAAA 77, 74, 72, 73, 30 103 Robert Gardner 15X45 binos SAC 74, 110, 76, 75 72, 73, 30 103 Wade Holguin 8"SCT unkn 74, 110, 55, 2, 72, 73, 30 101 Brian Page 9.25SCT EVAC 110, 39, 55, 75, 15, 2, 72, 73, 30 99 Jon Milan 5"SCT EVAC 97 Diane Hope 10"DOB SAC 96 Margaret McCrea 60mmRef RCA 93 Randy Ocheltree 8"SCT SAC 87 Jennifer Keller 10"DOB SAC 76 Joe Macke 8"SCT SAC 68 Dawn Schur 8"f5DOB SAC 67 Robert Hutchins 15"f4.5DOB EVAC 67 Robert King 10X50binos RCA 51 Pat Heimann 11"SCT TAAA 50 Jim Deck 8"f6DOB SAC 42 Wayne Powers 11"SCT none AAP = Astronomical Association of Princeton AL = Astronomical League - Member at Large CAS = Coconino Astronomical Society CV = Chagrin Valley, OH RATM = Raytheon Amateur Telescope Makers RCA = Rose City Astronomers, OR SCW = Sun City West, AZ