Has anyone ever tried a Messier Marathon before?

I have not; however if I get to go on my little observing trip in March I might see how many I can bag in one night. Not knowing the Coma/Virgo cluster I will miss many. Should be fun.

... I'm "training up" for 2010 ... might give it a little bit of a shot with the ones I know this March, but I am absolutely not ready yet ...

Hello,

I have never tried the Messier Marathon. To do it, I'd move to somewhere with clear horizons. The most difficult Messiers during the Marathon are those declining in the evening, and those rising in the morning. Another issue is, that Marathon makes fun in a group, we do not have in my location.

Sometimes during the summer, I do a binocular Marathon on any DSOs, to achieve a maximum count within 1 hour. 40 DSOs are manageable.

Thanks

JG

I recently went on a Messier marathon. It just started out as a night of modest observing. I really just wanted to try out my newly built observing chair: http://www.astronomyforum.net/astron...ing-chair.html

After a while I really got into the zone and let the goto loose on my Nexstar 4se. I ended up seeing twenty-five new objects that evening!: http://www.astronomyforum.net/astron...-marathon.html

After that killer session I was able to complete the forum's Messier 30 report.
Here is my Messier 30 report: http://www.astronomyforum.net/astron...-complete.html