From dragmila@EUnet.yu Mon Apr  2 12:09:55 2001
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 20:53:53 +0200
From: Dragan Miladinovic <dragmila@EUnet.yu>
To: spider@seds.org
Subject: Messier marathon report

FIRST YUGOSLAVIAN MESSIER MARATHON REPORT

I am proud to report that we made First Yugoslavian Messier marathon,
organized at night 23-24. Of March 2001, at the Letenka youth summer
camp, ( Lon: 19 d.41' E, Lat.: 45 d.08' N ) Fruska Gora Hills, 400
meters above sea level,  15 km south-west from Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.

The main idea was to popularize Messier Marathon , and, because most of
the competitors had no experience in "Messier hunting" we decide to make
some kind of promotional competition. So, organizers ( amateur
astronomers: Sasa Zorkic, Aleksandar Ilicic, Marina Radujkov, and me,
Miladinovic Dragan ) prepare star maps, and let competition can be made
by teams , because lack of instruments . There were 2 categories of
competitors: those "armed" with  binoculars 7x40 ( 9 comp.) , and few
with telescopes ( 3 refractors 60/700, 3 reflectors : 76/700, 110/800,
114/1000 )

 There were 15 teams ( with 2 members ) aged: from15 to 25 years, who
came from various cities ( Belgrade, Novi Sad, Valjevo, Zrenjanin etc.
). During first half of the night, seeing conditions were so bad and
made competition impossible. But, after 01.00 AM , clouds were gone, so
main judge , Aleksandar Ilicic announced start of the competition.
Seeing conditions in the second half of the night were good until 4.30
AM, sky was clear, although there were few street lights in camp,
towards south, ( looking from observing place ) , which made  low,
southern objects difficult to find.
Winner was Goran Stefanovic from Belgrade ( refr. 60/350 ),who find 29
Messier Objects. Reasons for unimpressive results are : bad weather,
lack of experience, street lights in camp etc.etc. Anyhow, the point is
that we made the first messier marathon in Yugoslavia, so we hope it
will became traditional . Next year, with more experience, on better
observing place  results must be better.

Regards from Yugoslavia,
Dragan Miladinovic