(Click here to see the list of 2001 Participants and their totals)

First, congratulations to all who participated!

As this is the first time I’ve coordinated a Messier Marathon, I’m not entirely sure what to write about. So instead here are some snippets from the observer’s reports. The full reports can be found on the NOVAC website at http://novac.com/mm.html. As you read through these snippets, I want you to remember the purpose of the Messier Marathon, and actually Bob Stewart stated it quite eloquently in one of his posts! So next year, I encourage all the rest of us to at least bag some good stories!

(Bob Stewart) Look here you all: This is supposed to be a night of fun! If all we bag are good stories then it is a success (a dim fuzzy or two would not hurt). Perhaps the dimmest fuzzy seen thru clouds. Lets just have some fun!

(J. Bein) Well I wasn't planning on doing a marathon last night [3/18], but with the weather forecast looking so dismal I decided to head up to Savage at the last minute. I arrived just before 7:00 and set up like I was pit stopping a car in the Indy 500. … I packed it in at 5:30 with a total of 107/110. A new personal best. I hear my pillow calling me so I gotta go.

(Kim Bieler) I started in on my Messier list, for practice. Managed to find 29 objects in 3 hours, which I was pretty chuffed about, but I think I'll have to work a lot faster to make a decent marathon showing….It wasn't particularly cold, but do I get points for driving 50 miles each way for the sake of the stars?

(J. Bein & Craig Tupper) The Ironman Messier Marathon: {Eliz’s note: Their title says it all!}
Last night [3/22] Craig Tupper and I were on a mission from God to score a perfect 110 Messier Marathon. … The site had 8-10 inches of snow on the ground and the wind was a steady 20-30 mph with gusts of 50 to 60 mph. The temperature was 38. … I used about an hour of my time to erect a snow block wall between my scope and the howling wind out of the West. … As the sky began to lighten we detected a cloudy haze up to about 15 degrees in the East. M30 eluded us and we ended with 106/110 very hard earned Messiers.

(Bob Stewart) What a night [3/23]. This being my first "official" marathon I feel good about bagging 78 objects. I did not even try for M77, and M74(along with 7 other FAINT fuzzies) I marked as “averted imagination.” … Next year, with a bit more planning I hope to knock off a few more. It was GREAT fun!

(Bob Traube) I got a start on my first marathon this year despite years of wishin and hoping. I believe it was on March 23 at Crockett. After a late start, and an early end (about 8:30 to midnite) I saw 25 objects. This includes two of the three galaxies in Leo (M105, M95 and M96) that I couldn't differentiate. I suppose technically I shouldn't get credit for any of them. That makes my official total of 23. Far from the very impressive totals reported by NOVAC members in earlier posts, but I had fun!

(Donna Blosser) I started around 7:30 Fri. evening and stayed with it until around 4:00 Sat. morning – out long enough to catch the upper objects in Sag. This was a first Marathon for me and it was a lot of fun. I actually saw a lot of M’s that were new to me because I just hadn’t tried to track them down before. The Marathon got me organized. Can’t wait to try it again.

(Alan Figgatt) The short story: Last night at Mickie, March 23-24, 2001, I managed to bag 87 out of 110 Messiers in a marathon with my TV-85! Got all of the first 87 Messiers on the suggested marathon order list, from M77 & M74 to M6 & M7, but due to weariness and increasing haziness called it a night around 3:30 AM.

Craig "Never say die" Tupper and Jonathan "Stubborn as a mule" Bein made one final attempt at a marathon last night [3/26]. Early evening breezes gave way to a calm, clear sky and temperatures between 12 and 15 degrees. We found the first ten objects from the side of Mt. Weather rd. near Heart Trouble La. We then moved to Savage Farm and worked through the remaining objects before taking a break at 11:30. At 2:30 it was back out into the cold and after the easier objects in Lyra, Cygnus, Sagitta, Scutum, and the top of Sagittarius, we struggled through the tough objects near the glow in the East. Craig had everything but M30 by about 3:50 and I was caught up at 4:05. Unfortunately neither of us could bag M30 before we were overcome by the sunrise. I gave up at 5:20. 109/110. Next try in 2003.