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Congratulations on what sounds like a great marathon, Jim!

It does sound counter-intuitive, but the Virgo Cluster was actually the least stressful part. Nudging from galaxy to galaxy in such a tight area saved lots of time, and the sparse star fields made the drawings a lot simpler. The Winter Milky Way open clusters were the tough part! M74, M32 and M110 ditched me too. I hope you get another dark sky opportunity soon.

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Thanks Jeremy, yes it was a great outing. So were you able to sketch the marathon? Did I miss a post with your sketches?

This was some of the best observing (although super rapid) I've had. If only I could've brought my scopes to Sedona last Feb...

I can definitely see how the Virgo cluster would be less stressful, they were up most of the night in good viewing position. What made them stressful for me was the fact there were about 4-5 galaxies in the same FOV so ID'ing them (which for me was a first time event) was quite stressful knowing I had so many to get through...but not realizing that this was the "break" point in the evening before things slowed down...

Then one of the other guys with us recommended pumping up the magnification to limit the FOV (I was using my TermiNagler 31mmT5), that helped a lot, though in some cases there would still be 2-3 in the FOV of my 17mm.

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Clear Skies,
Jim
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"Do, or do not. There is no try."-Jedi Master Yoda

Scopes: CGE925, 80ED, NP127is (w/ADM acc.)
EPs: Naglers: 31, 22, 17, 9, 3.5 Pan’s: 15
Misc: Telrad, 2x&4x Powermate, Sol/OIII/UHC/Var Pol. Filters
Imaging Gear: Pentax K100D, SPC900NC

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Jeremy's sketching marathon seems quite an ambitious undertaking, not sure even if I were a talented sketcher I'd be up for that kind of effort in a single night. I can't imagine doing the Virgo Cluster galaxies that way, but at least you probably have time to sketch them all.

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I've gotta give Jeremy a lot of credit and a huge applause for his sketching talent, he was well-prepared with nicely printed forms/templates and his sketches were phenomenal for a full night of work. I was pretty shocked ya pulled that off Jeremy!

You sir, are the master!

Nice tallies folks, thanks for sharing your reports and experiences, it's nice to know we all enjoyed it.

Oh and we had a treat at AAMM. A visit from Don Macholz, one of the creators of the Messier Marathon. He even made the rounds in the evening to say hello and check on everyone's progress. A very nice guy and a pleasure to meet.

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Scott
10" LX200 Classic, Konus 200, Orion ST80, ETX90 OTA, 60mm Celestron alt-az, Obie 20x80's, Meade 10x50's

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