The Marathon

[scotty365]

Ive heard that its possible to see all but 1 of the Messier objects during one night in the year, has anyone ever managed it? Also would anyone like to make a team to achieve the "proper" Marathon? It would be quite a blast - weather permitting!!!!

Scotty

[Andrew*]

sounds exciting. But what are the Messier objects? And are there Tidier objects too?

Andrew

[scotty365]

Well yes, they all fall under the Cleanier objects, everyone knows that! Do you think its possible to do them all in a lifetime?

Scotty

[Ant]

Hi Guys,

Yep it's possible to see every Messier object in one night - think astroman has done it once or twice - or come very close.

The date I believe is around the end of March.

Messier objects are so called because they were catalogued by Charles Messier - he was a comet hunter and wanted to make a list of all the objects that he might mistake for comets... Shame that he is remembered not for the comets that he found but the list of objects he discarded!

Ant

[Astroman]

Ant is correct. It is possible near the end of March to view all 110 of the deep sky objects discovered by Sir Charles Messier in the late 1700's. My wife and I have observed all 110 in one night once, and had the opportunity to do it again last March, but we were clouded out-we only observed 67 that night. Before that, the least number was 103. Viewing them all is possible, as mentioned, but depends heavily on your latitude. I'm not too sure it could be done from the UK because the more southerly objects may not rise high enough on the night intended. I'd have to check that.

Tidier objects? I should think those would be your optics! 8)

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I've imaged all 110 Messier objects in one week using Starry Night Pro, but thay are all tidyed away so I can't find them now.

If AM struggles to get gaps in the clouds I think we're in trouble in the UK as clouds tend to roost here a lot. From the UK I'd guess that you could see maybe 90 of the Messier targets in a good month as we are a bit too far north to see them all at one go. Be fun trying though.

Captain Chaos

[The Warthog]

I thought Charles Messier was a Frenchman, and therefore not a 'Sir.' He missed #111, as my daughter's room certainly qualifies as one of the messier objects. I have a guide to the Messier Marathon, signed by Don Machholz, the discoverer of Comet Machholz, and a veteran of many marathons, as well as a very nice guy. He didn't mention my daughter's room, either.

[Astroman]

I thought Charles Messier was a Frenchman, and therefore not a 'Sir.'

Wasn't Lancelot a Frenchman, too? Was he not a "Sir"? Anyway, I've seen him referred to as "Sir" by others, including my wall poster of his catalog, but in doing some web research, can't seem to find when or why he was Knighted, if indeed he was. Any ideas? The SEDS site doesn't mention it, neither do any quick scans of other biographies on the web. I stand corrected.

[The Warthog]

I did a little search, too. Now, Arthur was the King of England, and Lancelot served in Arthur's court which allowed him to become a Knight of the Realm, and also to invent tennis. Charlie Messier was never a British subject, though, and the best he could have done would be to become an honourary knight, as Rudolf Giuliani did a couple of years ago, which does not confer the right to use the title "Sir."

Turns out, though, that although Charles was born during the monarchy, he survived the French Revolution and was granted the Legion d'honneur, to this day the French equivalent of a knighthood, by Napoleon in 1806. At the time, he would have had a pension of 5,000 francs a year. Not bad in 1806.

People who refer to him as 'Sir' are making a mistake, probably because most British astronomers were knighted at the time.

Well. that was fun!

[GordonCopestake]

There is no mention of him being knighted in the wikipedia entry for him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Messier

[Astroman]

So there it is. Guess I'll have to scratch off the "Sir" from my poster, and someone should get Sky Publishing on the phone!