2010 All Arizona Messier Marathon Results

1 - Hermosillo, Mexico. Astronomical League- Member at Large /LIADA.
2 - Clifton Park, New York
3 - Auburn, CA; Astronomical League - Member at Large
4 - By memory, no chart, no Push To, no GOTO!
5 - Seattle, WA
6 - Truckee, CA; Astronomical League - Member at Large
7 - Astronomical League - Member at Large
8 - Minnetonka, MN; MN Astronomical Society
9 - Yes it was a 3" f4! I looked through it myself, not bad for a $30.00 telescope.

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2010 All-Arizona Messier Marathon Recap by AJ Crayon

This years marathon was as successful as any in the past. I estimated there were about 50 vehicles and 75 folks at the site. At last count 38 had turned in their lists for awards.

From the final tally note there were more first place members than in years past. Total of 17 first, five second and three third place finishers. As expected, M30 was the problem, yet M74 and M72 also created challenges for observers.

The participant count was rather high, much due to the clear skies after months of badly needed precipitation throughout the state. It also helped to keep the dust down on the Sonoran Desert. Our thanks to Ray Farnsworth for permitting us to use the land and his standard excellent job of grading the dirt road for us.

There were many folks in attendance, here is a selection of a few. Around midnight Jennifer Polakis came over with Donna Courtney, Robert Burnham Jr's niece. She came to see what it was that fascinated her uncle and what fascinated us about his unique work on astronomy. Grand Canyon Star Party organizers Jim O'Conner for the South Rim and Steve Dodder for the North Rim and, finally, David Douglass, president of East Valley Astronomy Club.

Many others from outside of Arizona were there, beginning with George Robinson, who does the Messier Marathon by memory. He calls it the MMM. From Seattle, WA Cal Drake; Truckee, CA Dean Oertle and Minnetonka, MN John Krawczak. Finally from Clifton Park, NY we found Greg Kettell who perhaps traveled the fartherest.

For our international visitors there was the always welcome Dr. Salvador Aguirre from Hermosillo, Mexico and another participant from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The most notable non-marathon event was a vehicle driving around in the desert near the observing site. It had no lights and seemed to drive around for about an hour or so, then disappeared into the night.

Several family units were observing together and, amongst them, were father/daughter, grandfather/grandson/granddaughter and father/son. I may have missed on or two here.

Rick Tejea took care of the T-shirt sales. At almost the last minute he got a setup from John Snider of Snider Graphics. The sales went as fast as hot cakes.

While I personally didn't do the marathon, it was great being there and seeing and speaking with so many folks. There is an observation or two worth mentioning and has to do with smaller telescopes. Turns out Rick Tejera had the smallest scope, his 60mm ETX with the dependable GoTo. He found 109 objects. Next was Ken Reeve's 3" f4 Dobsonian. He star hopped with this one using his 20" Dobsonian - stopped down to 8". We looked at M1 and M45 in the little one. Not bad images for a $30.00 telescope. Although Ken did 55 objects, it was on purpose as he called it his half-marathon. Yup, Rick's ETX also has very nice images.

Finally, I can't overlook my thanks to Rick Tejera for his assistance. Thanks Rick!

AJ Crayon
Saguaro Astronomy Club

See the following site http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/marathon/results.html for more information about this, other marathon events and Charles Messier.