Please submit any scheduled Messier Marathon 2017 Events!
Messier Marathoners: Send me your results! (2017 or earlier)

Messier Marathon 2017

In the year 2017, New Moon will occur on March 28, thus providing a good opportunity for a Messier Marathon on both the weekends of March 25/26, 2017 (primary) as well as April 1/2, 2017 (secondary option). On the primary date (March 25/26), there will be a good opportunity to attempt to hunt down all Messier Objects in one night from suitable mid-northern latitude locations, while the second date will be a tough challenge for the evening objects, M74 and M77. According to Tom Polakis' investigation, on the first primary occasion, a full score of 110 Messier Objects should be possible from locations between 12 deg and 37 deg Northern Latitude with most difficult object M30 in the morning, and southern limit from M110, while on the secondary date in April, the limits will be 20 deg to 41 deg North. M74 and M110 will limit to the south, M30 to the north; it will just be around these days of the year that M74 will become invisible for its annual conjunction with the Sun.

Messier Marathon Events 2017

Again, we plan to announce all scheduled 2017 Messier Marathon Events here.

The 2017 All Arizona Messier Marathon is scheduled for the weekend of March 25/26, 2017. This event is sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 25th time). It will be held at the same site as last years, the Salome Emergency Airfield (a.k.a. "Hovatter Airstrip"), an abandoned airport, about 100 miles west of Phoenix. - Rick Tejera
Also see SAC's 2017 All Arizona Messier Marathon announce, and their All Arizona Messier Marathon facebook page.
Kerry Dark Sky Tourism Limited are planning to host a Messier Marathon in the Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve in Ireland on March 24/25th 2017. Location is 51:51 North, 10:17 West. See their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/messierkerry/ - Steve Lynott
The Azerbaijani Young Amateur Astronomers Club is pleased to announce their first Messier Marathon this year, sponsored by the Tusi-Bohm Planetarium, Baku, Azerbaijan. This event is scheduled for April 2-3, 2017. See their announce on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1548699998478244/ - Famil Mustafa, Manager, Tusi-Bohm Planetarium
Astrofarm, based in Confolens, Southwest France, are planning a Messier Marathon on March 29/30, 2017, 6 pm to 6 am. Participants will have to bring their own telescope; advance booking required: See their Event Calendar. Visitors from France and Britain are expected. During the last week of March, there will be an opportunity every clear night to run a Messier Marathon on their sites; instruments will include an 80mm Tak refractor, 25x100 binoculars and a C9.25 goto telescope. Last year (2016) they had achieved a maximum of 92 objects in a night. - Andrew Davies, Residential astronomer, Astrofarm
Ashirwad Tillu from Mumbai, India is planning for his first Messier Marathon on March 25/26, 2017 from his village about 160km east of Mumbai, with his 18 inch (F 4.5) Dob.
Brandon Finnigan, amateur astronomer in Southern California, is organizing a Messier event at Amboy Crater, California. The event is to be held on Saturday April 1st from 6pm to 6am. The site boasts wonderful facilities and Bortle 2 skies. As its an inaugural event, they are just aiming to get the notice out there that this site will be welcome to anyone - it's the parking lot at Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark in Amboy, CA. BLM info packet for location is here: https://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/ca/pdf/needles/pubs.Par.68625.File.dat/Amboy_Crater.pdf. Parking is free, approx 30 spaces, facility has pit toilets, and gas, water, and snacks are available off Route 66 in the tiny town of Amboy proper (population 4...thats right...4) about 2 mi away. Email Brandon at: brandon at decisiondeskhq.com.
The Birmingham Astronomical Society (BAS) of Alabama will host a Messier Marathon at their Chandler Mountain Observatory on Saturday night, March 25th, 2017. The site is located approximately 50 miles Northeast of Birmingham off of I59, exit 166. More details on the location are found on their website at http://www.bas-astro.com/. The weather in the Southeastern USA is very iffy during the springtime so please check before leaving. Their back-up date is the next weekend on Saturday, April 1st, 2017. - Fred Rains, Outreach Coordinator, Birmingham Astronomical Society
The Asociacixón Nicaragiüense de Astrónomos Aficionados "Carl Sagan", ANASA will hold a Messier Marathon on March 25/26, 2017 at the Tisma Star Park, in Masaya, Nicaragua. (12.0453,-86.0382). They expect a dozen telescopes and some 45 participants. They plan to start at 18:00 UTC-6 and end at 03:00 UTC-6. - Julio Vannini (Blog)
The Sociedad Astronómica Queretana A.C. will be hosting the "Maratón Messier México 2017" on March 24-26, 2017. Location will be Centro Vacacional El Salto, Carretera San José Iturbide - Tierra Blanca, Km. 16.5, 37970 Tierrra Blanca, Mexico. Look at their announce in facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1870076309928578/ - Juan Carlos Hernández
The Quad Cities Astronomical Society, Iowa was to host its first annual Messier Marathon on March 24th - 26th 2017, but had to be cancelled/postponed due to fog, clouds, rain, and thunderstorms that would occur over the duration of the event. Ten amateurs of the Popular Astronomy Club and the Quad Cities Astronomical Society were to attend this event at he Saint Ambrose Menke Observatory in Dixon, Iowa. - Jeff A Struve

Please submit any scheduled events for announce here.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2017 or earlier, if not already done so, please send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

Extracurricular Activities

While it is the goal of the Messier Marathon to observe as many Messier Objects in a night as possible, it is sometimes convenient and enjoyable to combine the Messier Marathon with some other observational activities, in case some time is left during the night session. In the following, we propose some options to select from:

Deepsky enthusiasts can look for additional clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. While you can certainly pick and observe whatever you like, we also provide a list of additional deepsky objects to select from (also available with data).

It is always delightful to add to the Messier Marathon the observation of as many of the planets as possible, with Uranus impossible this year and Neptune at least extremely difficult on the primary weekend.

Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 will be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., Seiichi Yoshida's Visual Comet lists for the northern and southern hemisphere [currently our principal sources], IAU's Observable Comets page, Skyhound's Comet Chasing page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets, and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

Comet                       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag     RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                                March 26, 2017             April  2, 2017

41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak 11:50:34 +59:52.6   7.0    13:44:50 +64:51.9   6.7
71P/Clark                   16:12:19 -14:42.4  13.9    16:20:22 -15:32.4  13.6
C/2015 V2 (Johnson)         16:32:10 +47:27.8   8.6    16:30:56 +47:36.1   8.4
C/2015 ER61 (PanSTARRS)     19:59:40 -18:41.3  11.3    20:34:38 -16:06.8  11.2
29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1  21:16:06 -16:24.0  15.7    21:20:28 -15:59.8  15.7  Outbursts! c. 11m
C/2017 E1 (Borisov)         21:23:33 -06:54.4  14.4    22:01:29 -05:22.8  14.3
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3  21:48:57 -17:21.7  12.2    22:19:49 -15:35.2  12.4
2P/Encke                    22:35:18 -17:03.6   6.9    22:32:31 -18:03.9   8.6

Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996, Hale-Bopp in 1997, Ikeya-Zhang and Utsunomiya in 2002), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date. Also occasionally, a supernova of brightness available to amateur telesopes may have flashed up be spottable in time (like SN 1998S in NGC 3877, SN 2002ap in M74, SN 2006X in M100, SN 2012aw in M95, and SN 2014J in M82 in their years of appearance).

This year, of the "first" four minor planets, only faint (3) Juno (morning) and (4) Vesta (evening) will be in favorable oserving situation. (2) Pallas will be close to the Sun and thus impossible, (1) Ceres in difficult position at only 35-40deg elongation in the evening sky For those who want to try these objects, data for the two weekends in question are as follows:

Planet       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag    RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                 March 26, 2017             April  2, 2017

(1) Ceres    02:58:12 +13:46.5  9.0    03:08:28 +14:45.7  9.0
(2) Pallas   23:56:09 -02:04.9  9.8    00:06:03 -01:35.1  9.9
(3) Juno     18:52:03 -09:49.0 11.2    18:57:06 -09:17.9 11.1
(4) Vesta    07:34:24 +26:12.0  7.5    07:39:02 +26:03.7  7.6

Also, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS.

Please send me any results of your Messier Marathon for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

Messier Marathon Home < 2018 | 2016 >

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: March 25, 2017