Messier Marathon 1998
This was our announce for the 1998 Messier Marathon.
As this event is now over, we collect the 1998
and earlier Messier Marathon results. To contribute,
simply send me an email with your or your
groups results and/or a link to your own results page.
This year, the date around the weekend from Friday 27 to Sunday 29th of
March, 1998 gives a good opportunity to observe actually
all 110 Messier objects,
for observers of mid-northern latitude (20-40 deg). Unlike the
last two years, no spectacular comet is present this time, so you can
perhaps concentrate more on the Messier deep sky objects. In addition, you
can easily observe the planets Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
during this night (provided Pluto is visible with your scope at all);
there's also a chance to view Mercury, Saturn and Mars very low down west
after sunset, so that it may be possible to combine the Messier with a
solar system marathon (thanks to Bill Arnett for this hint).
Meteors might be visible from the following showers:
Eta Draconids,
Beta Leonids, perhaps some
Leonids-Ursids,
Eta Virginids, or
Pi Virginids.
Comets visible, according to the
JPL index of
Currently Visible Comets, sorted by apparent magnitude
(for March 28, 1998):
Comet RA (2000.0) Dec mag
C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp 04:59.9 -53:43 8.0
C/1997 J2 Meunier-Dupouy 21:48.0 +31:44 11.2
C/1997 T1 Utsunomiya 18:06.7 -10:44 12.2
103P/Hartley 2 05:13.5 +07:31 12.9
43P/Wolf-Harrington 09:25.8 -15:46 14.3
C/1996 D1 Mueller 02:36.7 -11:56 15.0
104P/Kowal 2 04:02.1 +14:07 15.3
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 13:30.1 -20:45 15.6
78P/Gehrels 2 06:44.1 +16:07 16.0
C/1997 O1 Tilbrook 15:21.7 +73:36 16.1
128P/Shoemaker-Holt 1 04:53.3 +19:09 16.1
132P/Helin-Roman-Alu 2 04:46.3 +17:07 18.3
Supernova !
A very special bonus is the 12th-magnitude supernova 1998S, which occurred
timely in the galaxy
NGC 3877 in
Ursa Major; this galaxy is also only about 12th magnitude, but many
amateurs will be able to get it in a break in the marathon.
Hope these enrichments will be appreciated during your marathon session !
Messier Marathon Events 1998
The following Messier Marathon Events have been announced:
- The Arizona Messier Marathon 1998 will
take place on Saturday, March 28, 1998 to Sunday, March 29, in Arizona
City, Arizona (see map).
- The
Northern Virginia Astronomy Club will have their third
Messier Marathon on March 27/28/29, 1998 (cloud date: April 3/4/5)
at their C.M. Crockett Park site; see
their announce.
- Christian Harder
is intending to run a Messier Marathon in Northern Germany on
March 28, 1998; interested parties please contact him by email or
phone (In Germany: 04265/8539).
- The Astroclub Solaris Aarau
will run a Messier Marathon on March 28, 1998 in Aarau/Switzerland.
Attendants will meet at the Volkssternwarte Nütziweid
(Schmiedrued, Schweiz).
Look at the 1998 Messier Marathon results!
If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 1998 or earlier,
if not already done so, please email me
your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in
our Messier Marathon Results page!
Marathon Home
Hartmut Frommert
(spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg
(smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Last Modification: 25 Mar 1998, 14:35 MET