On Saturday night, March 17-18, 2018, I met up with my friends Andrew, Roger, and Steve for a star party. We met for dinner at the Vail Steakhouse around 4pm and had a bite to eat before the night began. With full stomachs, we then drove down to Steve's house in Vail, AZ and set up our scopes outside his observatory. Andrew used an 8-inch reflector that he acquired from Roger for the first time. Roger was busy assisting Andrew, so decided to keep his telescope in the truck. Steve got his first light on a recently acquired used 4-inch refractor. I used my 8-inch Schmitt-Cassegrain with a Canon 80D DSLR.
The sky was mostly cloudy at sunset, but began to thin out shortly after, then more clouds rolled through. My goal was to do a Messier Marathon and observe all 110 Messier objects in one night. The last time I did this was March 16-17, 1996 in Colorado, 22 years ago! My results are shown in the images below, which are uncropped, unedited images. Field of view is 1.0 by 0.67 degrees in each image.
The first few objects were hampered by clouds and barely visible. M74 and M33 are faint through the clouds, but definitely there if you know where to look, so I counted them. I missed M32 and M110 because they were just outside the frame of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and did not notice at the time. I missed M44 due to pointing at M67 instead somehow and not checking the field. At a declination of 69 degrees, M81 and M82 were about a degree too far north of the camera running into the telescope base! I also missed M40 and M102 due to inaccurate pointing and not knowing what they looked like. Poor telescope alignment and tracking issues made for about 25 percent overall efficiency. I ended up running out of time by the end of the night and did not get the last dozen objects because of that.
Other highlights included a pass of the Hubble Space Telescope, neighbor's fireworks, and numerous visual treats through Andrew and Steve's telescopes. The last few hours of the night were quite cold (maybe upper 30's) and my breath was visible. I kept warm with the good company, plus hot coffee with lots of sugar. Roger and Andrew left early on, while Steve and I pushed on until morning twilight became too bright to continue. All in all, I had a great time with the guys and look forward to doing it again!
- MikeDate: 2018-03-18 UT Time: 0211-1241 UT Scope: Celestron NexStar 8 GPS + f/6.3 reducer Camera: Canon 80D DSLR Expose: 10-15 sec, ISO 6400-12800
 M31 |
 M74 |
 M77 |
 M33 |
 M76 |
 M34 |
 M45 |
 M1 |
 M42 |
 M41 |
 M65 |
 M66 |
 M95 |
 M96 |
 M105 |
 M37 |
 M36 |
 M38 |
 M35 |
 M67 |
 M48 |
 M50 |
 M46 |
 M47 |
 M93 |
 M43 |
 M78 |
 M79 |
 M51 |
 M63 |
 M94 |
 M106 |
 M109 |
 M108 |
 M97 |
 M101 |
 M98 |
 M99 |
 M100 |
 M85 |
 M84 |
 M86 |
 M87 |
 M89 |
 M90 |
 M88 |
 M91 |
 M58 |
 M59 |
 M60 |
 M49 |
 M61 |
 M104 |
 M64 |
 M53 |
 M5 |
 M68 |
 M83 |
 M3 |
 M13 |
 M92 |
 M9 |
 M107 |
 M12 |
 M10 |
 M14 |
 M4 |
 M80 |
 M19 |
 M62 |
 M6 |
 M7 |
 M11 |
 M26 |
 M16 |
 M17 |
 M18 |
 M24 |
 M25 |
 M23 |
 M21 |
 M20 |
 M8 |
 M28 |
 M22 |
 M69 |
 M70 |
 M54 |
 M55 |
 M75 |
 M32 |
 M110 |
 M44 |
 M81 |
 M82 |
 M40 |
 M102 |
 M27 |
 M71 |
 M57 |
 M56 |
 M29 |
 M39 |
 M52 |
 M103 |
 M15 |
 M2 |
 M72 |
 M73 |
 M30 |
 M42-2 |
 M42-30 |
 M51-30 |
 M65 M66 NGC |
 NGC5139 |
 Mercury |
 Venus |
 Mars |
 Jupiter |
 Saturn |