This article was contributed by David Baumgartner as part of a local series on astronomy. Lea este artículo en español aquí.
Don’t feel bad if you are not aware of who this Messier guy is, I would think about half of the amateur astronomers today aren’t aware of who this Messier guy is, let alone how to pronounce his name. Now as for me, I’m quite aware of who he is, for I just looked him up in my Encyclopedia. O.K. so I’m a little behind the times. At least I knew where to look for the information. I guess I shouldn’t be bragging too much here, for I seem to be fine mentally when it comes to my hobby, now physically might be another story. Now you must promise not to mention any of this to my family, I am already a fall away from being introduced to my first home away from home. Let me explain:
A week or two ago a friend and I were walking back to our car after a dinner outing in San Juan Batista, in the dark I might add. Before I knew it I was laying on my back on top of my friend looking straight up at the planet Jupiter. I had to bring that into the story to make it blend in with my article here. Lucky for us a lady stoped her car in the middle of the road with her light on and helps both of us up. I might say she was pretty strong. Well we laughed all the way home. Okay there’s more. Last Thursday night while setting up my large telescope I walked around the scope and tripped on one of the tripod legs landing flat on my back, by the way; cement is hard. I wasn’t alone, for following me to the ground was my eighty-five pound setup. I don’t know what was harder, the telescope or the cement. What was comforting was the appearance of the planet Jupiter once again looking down on me. Probably wandering what is with this guy. Maybe his family should put him in a home somewhere, one with a sky dome above his bed so he can stay inside, away from all the dangers of the outside.
Okay, now back to Sir Messier; Astronomer Charles Messier (1730-1817) devoted much of his life searching the sky for comets. In doing so he would come across many objects that at first he thought were comets, but not to be. What they turned out to be were stationary objects such as nebulas, galaxies, clusters and double stars. His love was finding comets and naming them after himself. He had less interest in these other confusing objects that would just get in his way. So he published his findings so that other astronomers wouldn’t have to go through what he did when searching for comets.
He started out with some 45 objects and they came to be called “The Messier Objects”. It was odd that he would later become more famous for his Messier Objects than for his comet findings. As time went on others were added to the list by future astronomers, until today we have a total of 109. Many of these deep-sky-objects can be seen with binoculars or small telescopes.
Two centuries later, backyard observers still consider many of these splendid “M” objects the jewels of the night sky. Each month, as the skies slowly change, new objects show up until by the end of the year you have seen them all. But there is one way you can see them all in one long evening.
Each spring amateur astronomers around the world run a Messier Marathon. A visual race through the night sky to get a glimpse of all the 109 Messier objects in a single night, from dusk to dawn. If you are lucky enough to catch 50 to 70 consider it a good night. The key here, of course, is getting away from the city lights; you will need all the darkness you can muster. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful from your own back yard. Plus that makes it nice to know that your own warm bed is only a few steps away should you decide to give it up early.
In our area we are lucky to have what we call South County. What a wonderful place to see these great wonders. But you just can’t stop wherever you want to and set up your gear, you need to know someone who lives in that area and would be nice enough to let you use a small patch of his dirt one night for about 12 hours. And that best night this year would be around the 20th. of March. No moon to get in the way. (New Moon)
It just so happens that I have a friend who has property down in South County and is nice enough to let us use a small portion of it every now and then to star gaze. He really appreciates the fact that we clean up after ourselves when we are through. A number of us have gone down to his beautiful spot to do some stargazing and what a beautiful location to view the wonders of the skies. We see at least three times the number of stars than we would have seen from Hollister. It makes it a lot easier to pick up more of the difficult to locate Messier objects. We plan to go down on the night of the13th/14th weather permitting and see if we can survive the annual nightlong marathon. The 14th is the same night of the Lunar Eclipse. So there will be a lot going on that night. If anyone is interested in going with us, just give me a call at 831-637-2112 leave your name and number and I will get back to you. We do have room for a few more rough and eager would-be amateur astronomers who think they can deal with the elements and lack of sleep. If you can’t make it, hope you can have your own marathon in your back yard. Don’t forget to invite some of your friends over and see how long they can last.
If you do give it a try, be sure to be well equipped, with such items as warm clothing, binoculars, telescope, (if you have one), star charts, red flashlight, chair, table, maybe a sleeping bag and for heaven’s sake don’t forget some good munchies, and some hot coffee or chocolate, especially if you come with us. For a couple of the guys, munchies are the main reason they even go with me on this marathon.
The Messier Marathon is an athletic event of sorts: Participants race around the sky like maniacs for a whole night only to end up where they started. The Messier Marathon does prove something very important though: Astronomy is fun, especially with munchies and friends. Clear skies.
Whats up this month:
Mar 06 Moon passes 6° north of Jupiter
Mar 06 First Quarter Moon
Mar 08 Moon passes 1.7° north of Mars
Mar 09 Mercury passes 6° south of Venus
Mar 14 Full Moon
Mar 16 Moon passes 0.4° south of Spica
Mar 17 Moon is at apogee (252,124 miles from Earth)
Mar 20 Vernal equinox occurs
Mar 20 Moon passes 0.5° south of Antares
Mar 22 Last Quarter Moon
Mar 24 Moon passes 0.9° south of Pluto
Mar 28 Moon passes 9° south of Venus
Mar 29 New Moon
Mar 30 Moon is at perigee (222,530 miles from Earth)
Mar 30 Venus passes 10° north of Saturn
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