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 Victoria
Centre holds an Annual Messier Marathon each Spring at the Victoria
Centre Observatory (VCO), and its environs, on West Saanich Road. Start is about
hour before sunset and finish is the following morning at dawn.
Past Messier Marathons
| March 8-9, 2013 The Centre�s Annual Messier Marathon was
held on March 8-9, 2013 at the VCO. In attendance were Micah, Jim, Greg,
Urmila, Michel, and I. We had perfect weather conditions with clear
skies from sunset to sunrise. Greg, Micah, and I had our Dobsonian
telescopes set up on the observation pad by 18:30 and awaited darkness.
By 19:15 I had my first observation, M74 the galaxy in the constellation
of Pisces, and the race was on. I kept M79 in the back of my mind as I
missed this object in 2009. By 23:30 all three runners had observed the
galaxies in Virgo and were ready to move on to the lower parking lot.
After setting up we carried on with our hunt. Light pollution from the
city definitely slowed things down, especially for objects low in the
sky. Greg and I struggled with M83, the Southern Pinwheel in Hydra. It
took me an hour to locate it.
Meanwhile, Micah charged ahead, helped I�m
sure with larger eye pupils. By 4:00 my gear was covered with dew and
had to be warmed up in my vehicle. At around 5:20 we witnessed a
beautiful moonrise and gave up a few minutes later as it was getting too
light to observe. In the end I came short of my goal of observing 100
Messier Objects by 7 for a personal best of 93 Messier Objects. Micah
observed and logged a remarkable 102 Messier Objects.
Congratulations
Micah! I went to bed at 7:00 and got up three hours later to find the
sky covered with clouds�our lucky break.
Charles
P.S. If you�d like to experience our Messier Marathon in less than 30
seconds checkout this time lapse video I created
2013 Messier Marathon |
2013 Messier Marathon
from RASC Victoria Centre |
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At the 2013 Messier Marathon on March 8-9, my mom drove me to
the gate at the bottom of the hill where we met up with Charles at
17:55. At 18:10 we drove up to the VCO and I started setting up and
collimating my telescope. Greg arrived shortly after. At 18:50 it was
dark enough for me to see m42 and 45. 74 and 77 soon followed along with
the other setting objects. At this time my dad was able to arrive along
with Michel and Urmila.
Many other Messiers followed shortly. At around 23:00 we had all
found everything there was to see and we all waited for Virgo to rise.
When it did, the fun and torment began. Another 40 Messiers later the
Virgo cluster exhausted, we all loaded out gear into our vehicles and
drove down to the lower parking lot where we all got to work on the
rising sky. Here, my first object was 39 and I was also treated to a
great view of the Blinking Planetary and the Cat Eye Nebulae.
As Ophiuchus rose, I got to work on the "summer sky" finding all the
Messiers that were visible above the sky-glow and low rising clouds. At
the end of the night, I had logged 102 messiers so at 05:30, Charles
offered to drive me home so that I did not have to phone my parents to
come pick me up (as my dad had left at 01:30 to get some sleep at home).
We loaded his car and he drove me back home. When I woke up from my day
of sleep at home, the sky was completely cloudy. Micah Aalder |
| March 23-24, 2012 The 3rd Annual Messier
Marathon was held last night, and was a modest success .... In
attendance were Nelson Walker, John McDonald, Greg Higgs, Janet Wallace,
Liz Davidson, Dorothy Paul, Jim Stilburn, Jim and Micah Aalders, and
Michel Michaud.
All were set up on the pad outside the VCO (except those with binos
only, and Michel, who was inside working on his latest project.
In any event, the conditions were somewhat variable, although always in
large part clear (5/7). Readings on the SQM were in the low 20's.
Observers described it as a "bit milky."
We plugged away until at least 2:00 AM, by which time all had left,
except for Micah and his dad, and your humble narrator. At that time,
Gregg Higgs had logged at least 51 objects, all from the VCO.
The three of us that remained the trundled down to the lower lot, where
for the next four hours, Micah went to work on the Messiers in the
Southern Sky, plus a few rising in the East. With his fully manual 6"
dob and an IPod, he chipped away at these objects, one by one, over the
city lights of Victoria. There were exactly five stars that could be
seen in Scorpius, and exactly none that could be seen in Sagittarius,
yet he knocked off one after the other. Occasionally he would say
something like "I've got the Wild Duck Cluster," or "Do you want to see
M14?" I would look at the sky and see nothing that would even lead one
to find any cluster, let alone one on the list. Jim had nodded off in
the back of their SUV, no small feat given the floodlights on the east
wall of the shop. I tried to muster the energy to put my scope back up,
but could do little more than watch Micah at work, and listen to
crackpot radio, and reports of people claiming to be members of the
Illuminati, or that they were in communion with aliens.
I'm anxious to hear from Micah how many objects he saw. When I asked, he
said he was keeping track of it on the IPod. We were off the hill by
6:00 AM.
Nelson Walker
Here is a message I received from Micah:
Dear Mr. Walker,
It was fun observing with you last night and thank you for staying
all night. Just so you know, I counted everything I saw and I found
81messiers!!!
(m74,77,33,31,32,110,52,103,34,45,42,43,78,1,35,37,36,38,41,93,47,46,50,48,44,67,95,96,105,65,66,81,82,97,108,40,106,94,
63,51,101,53,64,3,58,59,60,61,13,92,107,12,10,14,57,56,9,4,80,39,71,27,19,62,6,11,26,16,17,18,24,25,23,20,21,8,28,22,
69,70,54,) 7ngc's(188,7635,559,884,869,752,2392) and one caldwell(41)
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April 1-2, 2011 - Unfortunately, due to bad
weather, this Messier Marathon was cancelled.
March 12-13 & 19-20, 2010 - Unfortunately, due
to bad weather, this Messier Marathon was a bust.
Victoria Centre's First Annual Messier
Marathon
was held at the Victoria
Centre Observatory (VCO), and its environs, on West Saanich Road, March 25/26,
2009. This was an all night session. Several hardy members attended this "baptism by icy air."
This is the first of what is hoped will be the annual Messier Marathon for the
RASC Victoria Centre. March 28, 2009 was the predicted best weekend of the year
for a marathon, however
March 25 gave us the best weather.The Victoria Centre made history last night
by holding its first Messier Marathon. Myself, Nelson Walker, Joe Carr, John McDonald, Bruno Quenneville, Rand
Collins, Li-Ann Skibo, Paul Dickson, and Miles Waite attended this
"practice run".
At around 20:15 we were treated with a spectacular ISS-Shuttle
flyby. Joe noticed the Shuttle zipping-by followed by the brighter ISS.
The two units were separated by about five degrees. We tried our best to
observe M74 and M77 but failed to see these two galaxies. I log my first
object, M33, at 20:34. After observing the galaxies in Virgo it was time
for me, Nelson, and Miles to strike down our gear and move to the lower
parking lot where Joe and Bruno were hard at work. Observing the Messier
Objects located in Scorpius and Sagittarius was challenging due to light
pollution and marine air. Clouds moved in fast at around 05:00 and put
an end to the race. In the end I was able to observe 89 Messier Objects.
I missed the following four objects before giving up: M74, M77, M79, and
M83.
Thanks to Nelson for organizing this event and Joe for bringing
"Mission Control" on site.
Charles Banville Many thanks to Charles for posting this report
of Messier Marathon "practice session."
It was a great event. Observatory hill imposes some "challenges" that
might not be found at a dark sky site (heck, anyone can find Messier
objects from Mt. Kobau), but what a great history the place has, what an
ambiance! Hunting Messiers in the shadow of that huge white dome! We are
indeed fortunate. Nelson Walker Please see
Observing
Highlights 2009 for
more Messier Marathon observing reports. |
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