A Night With the Messiers
March 2008 :
Not wanting to waste a clear night,
given how lousy the weather has been
lately, I packed up the Pronto last night
(Monday, March 10) and headed to the
observatory last night with Pennington’s
Messier Marathon Field Guide.
When I arrived at 2030 I set up in the
parking lot to get a quick view of the
crescent moon through the WNW sky
now made available by the removal of
the trees to the south of the clubhouse.
This was also my first field test of a
recently acquired TMB 9mm Supermonocentric.
The eyepiece framed
the moon in the 480mm scope almost
perfectly, with little sky visible around
the edge. Earthshine was very prominent
and I was able to make out the
maria and other major features on the
dark side of the moon. There was also
one lone sunlit peak just off the south
limb of the crescent.
My original thought was to try to
get M33 and M31 early on, but having
spent about a half hour on the moon,
these objects had sunk pretty low and
by this time the transparency was
worsening, so it was on to some of the
star clusters. For the observations I
used the 13mm Ethos as a lower power
“finder” and except for larger objects,
the 9mm TMB as my primary observation
eyepiece.
M45, M36, M37, M1
First grab was M45. The Pleiades are
always worth a look whenever they’re
up. Then over to the cluster in Auriga.
M36 and M37 are often overlooked,
but they reside in a spectacularly rich
star field in the Milky Way and provide
great views even in a small scope. M1,
the Crab Nebula is a surprisingly easy
target in the 70mm scope and spending
a few minutes looking at it reminded
me of the 2006 New Mexico trip, from
looking at it in a 24 inch scope at GNTO
to hiking out to Supernova Petroglyph
the next day.
Before moving on I wanted to try
the TMB 9mm on a couple of double
stars. One of my old favorites, Mizar
provided a nice view, with both Mizar
and Alcor being visible in the field, and
the wide double was easily split. Next
was gamma Leonis, a much tighter
split that deserved a high power look.
I then looked at Saturn for a bit.
M42, M43, M78
It was time to move the scope into
the courtyard to look at a different
section of sky. Orion was getting a
bit low in the trees so I wanted view
some of its Messiers before losing them.
Like the Pleiades, M42 & M43 are also
an “every time they’re out” object to
view. M78, a small patch of nebulosity
between Betelgeuse and Alnitak was
easily picked up at low power.
At this time I planned to go back
into Perseus to grab the Messiers there
before they sunk too low. Unfortunately
by this time haze was beginning
to fill much of the sky to the north, and
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to spot
much through it. The scope was then
moved to the back lot for viewing of
Canis Major.
M51, M93, M46, M7, M50
With Sirius still well placed, it was
time to grab all of the Messier clusters
in the vicinity. M46 and M47 have been
perennial favorites, but I hadn’t looked
at the other clusters probably since
my last sincere attempt at a Messier
Marathon 13 years ago.
M38, M35, M48, M44
Back northward, I had skipped a
cluster in Auriga that I wanted to pick
up before it was too late. Then moving
back into Gemini I noticed Mars was
fairly close to where M35 is. Using low
power I zeroed right in on M35 and
spent a few minutes studying it at low
power. After a little while I figured I would
pick up Mars since I was in the area.
Knowing that Mars is rather far away
now that even high power wouldn’t
reveal any detail, I turned the declination
knob until Mars was in view. I was
instantly in awe at what I was looking
at, and knew right away that this was
the highlight of the entire session. With
M35 still gracing the view on one half of
the Ethos 100-degree field of view, Mars
blazed prominently on the other side. It
has been said by many observers that
M35 contains an asterism that appears
as an arrowhead, and it is one of those
asterisms that doesn’t take a stretch of
the imagination to see. But here, the
spectacle was that the arrowhead was
pointing directly at Mars.
Continuing southward, I picked up
M44 (which was the last of the 3 naked
eye Messiers I observed), then on to
yet another overlooked, but otherwise
worthwhile cluster M48.
M81, M82, M97, M51, M40, M101
At the point, the Big Dipper was
riding high overhead and I knew my
session would end soon as the temperature
was dropping quite a bit and I
didn’t come prepared for a lengthy stay
(had this been a weekend I would have
planned for a longer session).
M81 and M82 were right about at
transit, so what better time to view
them. I had forgotten how difficult it
is to move a GEM around this close to
the pole. Within a couple of minutes
I spotted the spectacular galaxy pair,
which is another perennial favorite.
These were also the first galaxies of the
night, and even though M81 and M82
are a bright pair, I was moving into the
more difficult realm of the Messiers,
at least when it comes to using small
aperture with a fair amount of light
pollution.
Next was M97, one of only 4 planetary
nebulae on the Messier list and the
only one I would view tonight. Nearby
M108 was the only Messier I attempted,
but couldn’t not locate. I recall this
being a difficult object, but I know I’ve
seen it in the Pronto before. Perhaps
putting in the 9mm Nagler would have
brought it out, but I wanted to continue
on with the list as I knew I would be
ending the session soon.
M40 is the only double star in the
Messier list, and rather conspicuous
even at low power. This was followed
by M101 and M51.
M67, M65, M66, M105, M95, M96
I missed the cluster M67 in Cancer
on my first pass through the region so
went back to get it before proceeding
with the galaxies in Leo. Looking for
galaxies, especially in this part of the
sky where the light pollution is a bit
more of an obstacle, I went to the 9mm
Nagler for finding, since the higher
magnification provides better contrast.
M65 and M66 in the lion’s hindquarters
were an easy pick, as was M105, but the
visibility of a few NGC galaxies in the
area made M95 and M96 a little difficult
to identify.
Closing out the Messier hunt I moved
again to Saturn. The ringed planet was
now near transit and provided a nice
view at high power. Finally I wanted to
get one last look at Mars and M35.
I wrapped it up at about 2355 and
bagged a total of 28 Messiers (25%).
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