MESSIER MARATHON REPORT
Messier Marathon - March 15-16, 1996

Evening

12 mid-night - - Clouds opened at 9 when a small suckerhole enabled me
to see Venus and a few outer stars for a brief instant. Sky was totally
cloudy until 1 AM local

M-3 CVN Globular Cluster
M-13 HER 

The comet was visible before the sky clouded a second time.  I used 6"
telescope, 70 x


VIRGO GALAXIES

M-98, M-88, M 84 & 86, 87 Cen A!, M-90, M-58, M-61

I was very cold.  When the sky finally cleared out the comet C/1996 B2
was magnificient.  I also observed Galaxies in Leo:

M-65, M-66, M-105, M 95 & 96

I observed Globular Clusters M-4, M-80 at 2:45 

Hyakutake Observation

We spent a lot of time looking at Hyakutake because the weather had made
it impossible to do the Marathon anyway. The comet displayed a
pronounced nucleaus, very stellar.  It was hard to define it's edges,
but it seemed to be a hugh fan-shaped object

My first impression:

Coma had a very stellar nucleus.  The coma very large, its extent hard
to determine. Paul Leopold's  10" f/6 revealed a small star near the
nucleus. Binoculars showed a bright blob with a fanshaped "tail".  In
between 6th magnitude stars in Libra.   Much brighter than these 6 mags,
very beautiful and striking.  The naked eye view of this comet is
screaming!  Brighter than any comet I've seen!

Marathon Continues:

Bob Kihm found some objects with his computer on a 6" f/8:

M5, M 104 Sombrero, M83

Eric Hall found M81 & M82 in his 8" f/6. I was then able to see it in my
7 x 50's and find it in the scope.  Eric also found 5897 in Libra.

Unfortunately, for me the Marathon was over early because of cold and
fatigue, I was unable to find the objects that I knew were up and
waiting for me.  The night had been too long and the hunt was too short!


So there you have it!


--
        Dawn Jenkins
 ct411@cleveland.freenet.edu
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