The Messier Marathon will be held on Saturday, March 21, 2015 here in Victoria, hosted by Michel Michaud, our Observing Co-Chair. If the weather looks poor for Saturday, Michel may move the event ahead a day to Friday night (the 20th). RASC members should be designated Active Observers, since this event will be held at our observatory (and other locations) on Observatory Hill, which is behind a locked gate. Michel will send out go/no go notifications on our email list for Active Observers.
RASC Victoria Centre also encourages the general public to participate in your own Messier Marathon. All you need is a dark site to observe from with an unobstructed view of the souther half of the horizon. Click on the above event for useful information about how to observe celestial objects in an efficient manner, so you have a chance to see all 110 objects on the list!
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March 21, 2015
As forecasted, the clouds came in around 10 pm and it was the end of the evening.
Diane, John, Nelson, Christian, Matt, Dan and I arrived on the hill at 0715.
I imaged the Pleiades for 20 minutes to confirm the periodicity of the newly double stars discovered by myself this winter.
Diane observed over 23 Messier objects in 2 hours with her binoculars. John observed some Messier objects too.
Nelson was working on his asterism project and found at least two.
Christian was his first time at the VCO and got the Grand Tour.
Dan imaged the Markarian’s Chain galaxy in Virgo… I think!
It was great to see so many members on the hill… The Messier marathon had to be cancelled due to the weather but everyone enjoyed their evening anyway.
Everyone was off the hill by 1030 pm.
Cheers
Michel