Gerd Waloszek       

Astronomy | GXR · GR · RX100 M1 · RX100 M4 · RX10 M3/4 · TZ202 · X Vario · M240 · General | Photos | Conf. Places | Calendars | Art

Deep Sky Observations with eVscope - Messier-Marathon March 2020

Introduction | Observation Overview | List of Observed Deep Sky Objects | Collage of Observed Deep Sky Objects | References

Note: See page Overview of the eVscope Pages for just that!

Introduction

At the beginning of spring, Messier marathons are held all over the world publicly or privately. The goal is to observe as many Messier objects as possible in one night; the maximum number of objects is 110 (some people also speak of 109 objects...). To achieve this goal, you need not only a dark sky but also about 10 hours of time, from about 8 p.m. in the evening until almost 6 a.m. the next morning (or from sunset to sunrise), in order to approach (almost) all objects and observe them briefly. To enable observers to use this time optimally, observation plans are published, which can be used for organizing the observations. I had received such a plan for example from Oculum-Verlag by e-mail. In the meantime, however, the whole affair is no longer seen that strictly. So you may spread the Messier marathon over several days or even a week. There is also the "half-marathon", where you are allowed to limit yourself to a subset of the objects - particularly if you do not want to observe the whole night long.

Since there were already quite a few eVscope owners in March 2020, Unistellar called on them to take part in a Messier marathon organized by them and to report on their observations via social media. The eVscope owners were given one week, from March 19, 2020 to March 26, 2020 for this task. A man from Finnland managed to observe 85 Messier objects with the eVscope in only three, an American even 109 objects in just two nights!

Actually, I did not intend to take part in the Unistellar Messier Marathon, and I did not do so officially, because I stay away from social media. But I performed a small "private" version of the Messier marathon (from March 18th to March 25th; on March 26th, the sky was cloudy) and also observed a few objects that are not included in the Messier catalog.

Photos: Unistellar also asked for photos of the observers - here are some...

During my private Messier marathon, I visited the following deep sky objects with the Unistellar eVscope (in alphabetical order):

• Messier Objects (67 Objects): M 1, M 3, M 5, M 13, M 31, M 32, M 33, M 34, M 35, M 36, M 37, M 38, M 40, M 41, M 42, M 43, M 44, M 45, M 46, M 47, M 48, M 49, M 50, M 51, M 52, M 53, M 58, M 59, M 60, M 61, M 63, M 64, M 65, M 66, M 67, M 74, M 76, M 77, M 78, M 79, M 81, M 82, M 84, M 85, M 86, M 87, M 88, M 89, M 90, M 91, M 93, M 94, M 95, M 96, M 97, M 98, M 99, M 100, M 101, M 102, M 103, M 104, M 105 (+ NGC 3384 and NGC 3389), M 106, M 108, M 109, M 110
• Other (11 separate objects): B 33, IC 2574, NGC 604 (in M 33), NGC 1977 (+ NGC 1973 and NGC 1975), NGC 2024, NGC 2403, NGC 2438 (in M 46), NGC 2903, NGC 3384/89 (with M 105), NGC 3607/08/05, NGC 3628, NGC 4284/4290 (with M 40), NGC 4387/4402 (with M 86), NGC 4394 (with M 85), NGC 4647 (with M 60), NGC 4697, NGC 5053, NGC 5466

Object details can be obtained via the links to the relevant deep sky objects.

I composed a collage of all 78 observed objects. For photos of the 110 Messier objects, see page Messier-Katalog by Manfred Simon (in German).

Observation Overview

Further details can be found on page Deep Sky Observations with eVscope Mid-March 2020 and on....

G = galaxy, OC = open star cluster, GC = globular star cluster, GN = galactic nebula, PN = planetary nebula, P = star pattern, DN = dark nebula, C = comet, SN = supernova

List of Observed Deep Sky Objects

Object details can be obtained via the links to the relevant deep sky objects. Some of the detail pages are still "in progress", but all of them contain photos.

Possibly, I will add some preview pictures to the table. I also created a collage showing all observed objects.

G = galaxy, OC = open star cluster, GC = globular star cluster, GE = galactic emission nebula, GR = galactic reflection nebula, DN = dark nebula, C = comet, PN = planetary nebula, SP = star pattern, HII = HII region (emission nebala in other galaxies)

*) Some of the objects were detected on photos of Messier objects.

Collage of Observation Objects

The collage below presents the 67 Messier objects that I observed during my private Messier marathon between March 18 and 25, 2020. There are 68 photos, because I also photographed M 65 and M 66 together (M 86 includes M 84, but I also photographed M 84 alone). Furthermore, the collage contains photos of 11 objects that are not contained in the Messier catalog, but in fact there are as many as in the list above because some of them were photographed together with Messier objects (or other objects).

Some photos are "borderline" and I sometimes do have better photos of these objects, but these were taken outside the marathon, and therefore do not appear in the collage.

Large version (4800 x 6800 pixels, 4.8 MB); medium-sized version (2400 x 3400 pixels, 1.2 MB)

References

Books

• Michael Feiler & Philip Novak (2023). Deep Sky Reiseatlas (5. Auflage), Oculum Verlag (ISBN 978-3-949370-04-5)
  www.oculum-verlag.de/detailview?no=608
• Ronald Stoyan (2021). Deep Sky Reiseführer (6. Auflage), Oculum Verlag (ISBN 978-3-938469-72-9)
  www.oculum-verlag.de/detailview?no=603
• Erich Karkoschka (2022). Atlas für Himmelsbeobachter, Kosmos Verlag (EAN: 9783440173602)
  www.kosmos.de/de/atlas-fur-himmelsbeobachter_1074889_9783440173602

On this Website

• Overview of Observations
• Unistellar eVscope - Information
• Unistellar eVscope - Photo Gallery (Messier Catalog)
• Unistellar eVscope - Photo Gallery (Other)
• Messier-Katalog (Manfred Simon): www.astro-manni.de/messier-katalog.html (in German)