From: billferris@aol.com (Bill Ferris)
Newsgroups: sci.astro.amateur
Subject: Messier Marathon report
Date: 02 Apr 2000 06:49:55 GMT

Flagstaff, Arizona, is a great place to observe but it's not perfect. The
nighttime temps can get a little crisp during marathon season. Last year, I'd
made a mental note to check out the area west of Flagstaff along Hwy 89 for a
winter observing site. This two-laner runs roughly north-south from Ash Fork to
Prescott and there are many open grassy areas visible from the highway. I
headed out this afternoon about 4 PM and found a nice location for the
marathon. It's a large, open, grassy field at 5,200 feet elevation. The area is
called Putney Flat.

This site has excellent access to the sky all around the horizon. Some sky glow
from Ash Fork, Williams, Flagstaff, Prescott and (possibly) Sedona was visible.
Winds were gusty until twilight when things calmed quite a bit. A quick
binocular tour after twilight ended revealed M51, M101, M81 and M82--all pretty
obvious--through my 10x50s. It's a nice site and about 5 to 10 degrees warmer
than my usual dark sky observing location on Anderson Mesa near Flagstaff.

Anyway, I was all set to run the marathon until M74 escaped detection. It set
behind a distant hill at about 8:06 PM. I'd been tracking M74's location for 10
minutes before losing it behind the hill. According to MegaStar, M74 doesn't
set from this latitude until 8:18 PM on April 1. The hill must have obscured
about 3 degrees of the horizon. If I'd been observing two or three days prior
to April 1, I believe I would have bagged it. Last Saturday, March 25, I
observed M74 from Anderson Mesa at 7:44 PM.

Well, a Messier marathon requires a certain mindset. My desire to observe went
"pffffft!" the second M74 slid below the horizon. Since I'd gotten 109 at last
year's All-AZ event, the prospect of an all night session with no hope of
getting all 110 didn't really appeal to me. So, I packed up and drove home.

BTW, I was using my 10-inch Newtonian.

Bill Ferris
"Cosmic Voyage: The Online Resource for Amateur Astronomers"
URL: http://members.aol.com/billferris/index.html