Terrace Observatory participated in a Messier Marathon this year. Traditionally, marathoners are individuals who demonstrate a superior understanding of the skies by quickly locating, observing and documenting the Messier objects in an all-out race with the celestial clock.
The advent of "go-to" telescopes has made marathoning easier, but (and I readily admit this) it is "cheating".
However, my project involved the use of a go-to telescope, a CCD imager and camera. Instead of focusing on finding the objects my goal was to attempt to image and immediately post as many of the Messier objects as possible. To count as a "find", the object must be recognizable when compared to the SEDS Messier icon sheet . This is similar to a project completed by Hunter & Knauss (1998), except that they did not use a go-to scope or imager and achieved very impressive results!
Method
The marathon occurred on March 26/27, 2006. I followed the observing order established by Don Machholz, but had to modify it slightly due to the obstructions I faced, particularly along the western horizon. The primary instrumentation was a Meade DSI CCD camera at prime focus on an LX200 200mm telescope. Open clusters and other larger objects were captured using a Pentax K1000 camera with a 35 or 200mm lens. Fast film was used and developed onto a CD for post processing.
Equipment:
- Meade LX200 Classic 200mm SCT
- Meade DSI-C Imager
- Pentax K-1000 Camera
Results:
Terrace Observatory imaged 60 messier objects in this, its first marathon attempt. Much was learned that will help in future attempts. A full report with images can be found here.
