For our 25^th wedding anniversary, my wife decided it was time for a telescope, something I had been talking about for years. So in July of 1999, I brought a 114mm Celestron reflector. After several weeks of looking at the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, and a few stars in constellations I was familiar with, I decided it was time to start looking for something more. After all, the night sky is filled with thousands of stars, but where to start?

Well, on the wall at the Ashton Observatory was a poster showing a whole bunch of galaxies and nebulae. This was what I was looking for: The Messier Objects. The first thing I had to learn was how to pronounce it. My wife explained to me, "It’s French. The ‘er’ at the end is pronounced like a long ‘a’." mes-see-a. I’m sure some of my more experienced comrades quietly said, "Rookie." But they quickly accepted me into the family.

It seems Monsieur Charles Messier, a French astronomer, was a great comet hunter in the 18^th century. In an effort to help out fellow comet hunters, he decided to compile a list of fixed nebulae, which should not be confused with comets. In 1774 he published his list of 45 fixed nebulae. By 1780, he added 23 more objects. A protégé, Pierre Méchain, added an additional 35 by 1787, bringing the total to 103. Over the next few years, 7 more objects were added to total 110.

It's pretty funny when you think about it. Messier created a list of objects and said, "Don't bother looking at these." And that list has become some of the most sought after objects in the night sky.

29 globular clusters, 26 open clusters, 28 spiral galaxies, 11 elliptical galaxies, 1 irregular galaxy, 7 diffuse nebulae, 4 planetary nebulae, 3 asterisms, and 1 supernova remnant make up the list.

Now with t he goal defined, where do I start to find all the objects in the Messier Catalog? At the bookstore, of course! Along with Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, I found a couple books to help me in mysearch, The Star Guide by Robin Kerrod and Peterson Field Guides - Stars and Planets by Jay M. Pasachoff. The magazines would provide good monthly articles highlighting interesting features in the sky but not always Messier objects. The Star Guide has an excellent collection of naked eye monthly charts and constellation maps showing the positions of most of the Messier objects but not a lot of detail. Stars and Planets, on the other hand, provides a much more detailed set of charts in a smaller format book, making it easier to take out to the observation site.

I remember the first time I saw M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. I was in my backyard and knew where it sat in relation to Cassiopeia but I was not having any lot luck finding it with my scope. So I took my binoculars and started scanning the sky and there it was! Now I started learning the importance of star hopping with the finder scope. I could see if I started at Beta Andromeda to Mu to Nu and then a little to the right, I should find it. But I could only see Beta with my naked eye. So I lined up the finder on Beta and started hopping. It worked!

A couple of days later I was out at Ashton continuing to perfect my ability at locating Andromeda when Brian Ritchey walked over, congratulated my find and then asked if I had seen M13, the Hercules Cluster. He then showed me how to find it. This was an example of how the DMAS members have been a great help and encouragement. Like the time when I was working on the Messier objects around Sagittarius, Tom Bailey challenged me to a race to find the next object, of course he would get to use the computerized scope.

Over the next 4 months many of my attempts to locate Messier objects failed. By March 1^st I had only seen 8 objects. I came to the conclusion I needed more detailed charts. After a search of the available products, I decided on SkyTools by CapellaSoft. SkyTools has proved to be everything I hoped it would be. After telling the computer software what type of telescope and eyepiece I am using and what the naked-eye limit is at the observation site, the software displays exactly what will appear in the eyepiece. This became the most useful feature for me. It would allow me to confirm that I was looking in the right place. Another very useful feature is the observation logging. Since I take my laptop computer when observing, logging my observation became very easy. When it came time to submit my observation log, I just print the report.

With all the proper tools in place, by the end of March my Messier count was up to 33. By early July, I was able to view 100 of the Messier objects with my 114mm, but I was having trouble seeing M24, an 11.1 magnitude open cluster. I decided it was time to get trained on the 16 inch Newtonian at the Ashton Observatory. In another month I had viewed 9 more objects, leaving only M79. But it would not even be visible for a month. So on the morning of September 4, I got up at 3 am and headed out to Ashton. At 4:49 am, just after it moved above the trees, I was able to see M79. Within 3 minutes, clouds covered it up.

So what does it take to see all 110 Messier objects?

#1: Time out under a dark sky. Although I did view several of the objects from my backyard in Des Moines, most of them can only be seen away from city lights. Spreading out the effort over a whole year, one or two evenings each month can achieve the goal. According to my logs, I spent about 34 hours on 25 evenings over a six-month period, mostly at Ashton, but also from Des Moines, Badger Creek, and near Alma, Michigan.

#2: Become familiar with the constellations in the night sky. When referring to the location of the Messier objects, they are always listed by the constellation they reside in or near. You can practice this skill every time you find yourself out under the night sky. I even find myself trying to identify constellations when they show a night sky in a movie.

#3: Get access to a good set on star charts. DMAS has a set of Star Atlas charts and has TheSky on the PC at Ashton observatory. If you are considering getting your own computer charting software, I would highly recommend selecting software that has the ability to produce eyepiece charts which display exactly what you will see through the eyepiece and take into account that the telescope may flip or reverse the image. As stated above, this feature can very helpful in verifying you are looking at the right place.

#4: You will need to become very comfortable with how to use your scope's finderscope, Telrad, or other pointing system. If you have a Telrad, there are two small books available with star charts for each Messier object, which show the placement of the Telrad circles.

#5: When looking for dim objects, here’s a little trick I have learned. If you think you see a very dim fuzziness in the field of view, move the scope ever so slightly to see if the fuzziness moves along with the rest of the stars.

#6: Don’t be afraid to ask someone else to verify your sighting. I have found other members enjoy sharing my finds.

#7: Find a poster that has pictures of all the Messier objects to keep track of your progress. Here are some web links which can be printed:

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/data2.html
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/Pics/M/MESSIERS-BIG.jpg
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/courses/ast105/messier.htm
http://www.3towers.com/messier.htm

#8: Don’t be disappointed when what you see in your telescope isn’t as spectacular as the photo you have seen. Remember that the photos are time-elapse images. What continues to amaze me is the light from the Andromeda Galaxy has taken over 2 million years to reach my eye, M81 & M82 about 4.5 million years and M87 in the Virgo Cluster over 47 million years.

And what are my favorite objects? Beside the M42, Orion Nebula, I find M81-M82 to be a pair I return to very frequently. They are visible some part of every clear night, both in the same field of view. And the winner for most disappointing: M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. I was hoping to see a real nice large galaxy, but in my 114mm, it just looked like a couple of out of focus stars.

The 2001 Des Moines Astronomical Society Messier Marathon was scheduled for March 24-25 at Ashton Observatory near Baxter, Iowa. All day long on the 24^th, the forecast called for clearing skies. So Brad Houge and I found ourselves at the observatory before sundown to wait for the skies to clear. But, as you’d guess, spring weather in Iowa is not very cooperative and the skies never cleared. So much for the second annual DMAS Messier Marathon.

Or so I thought. Monday morning the 26^th came with clear skies and the forecast, again, was calling for the skies to stay clear through Tuesday. I left work at 3:00 p.m., finished some other work I had to get done, and got to Ashton Observatory by 6:20 p.m. Unfortunately, the road into the observatory was closed because to the spring thaw and I had to hike in the last 3/8 mile carrying my scope, charts, food and water. By 7:00 p.m., I was all setup and had a chance to look at a beautiful crescent moon along with Jupiter and Saturn before getting down to business.

One of my goals for the evening was to use my 114mm f/8 Celestron Newtonian. This kept me from seeing M33. I know I was looking in the right place, but I could see no evidence of the galaxy. The site at the observatory is also surrounded by trees which is great for blocking the yard light on some of the surrounding farms, but it also blocks the first 10 to 12 degrees of the sky. By the time it was dark enough to see M77, it was in the trees.

After missing the first 3 object on my list, including M74, the rest of the evening moved along very nicely until about 9:30 as the temperature drop into the low 20’s F. As I was getting to work in Leo, my finderscope started frosting over enough that it was becoming unusable. At this point, I decided it was time to switch to the 16" f/4.5 Newtonian in one of the observatory domes. I finished the night in the somewhat warmer dome. But moving to 16" presented another problem. I had printed all my charts out of my SkyTools software for my 114mm with its 6x30 finderscope and the 16" has a TelRad. It just made it a little tricky.

The rest of the night went very well until dawn. The trees got in the way again and I was unable to get M55, M2, and M30. All in all, I am very pleased with my results. 104 out of 110 objects was just fantastic!

The following is an hour by hour list of the objects I viewed:

7 to 8 - (6) - M42, M45, M41, M43, M31, M32

8 to 9 - (19) – M52, M110, M103, M76, M34, M79, M78, M1, M38, M36, M37, M35, M93, M47, M46, M50, M48, M44, M67

9 to 10 – (7) – M95, M96, M105, M65, M66, M81, M82

10 to 11 – (6) – M97, M108, M109, M40, M106, M63

11 to 12 – (8) – M94, M51, M101, M102, M13, M92, M53, M3

12 to 1 – (18) – M98, M99, M100, M85, M84, M86, M87, M89, M90, M91, M88, M58, M59, M60, M49, M61, M104, M68

1 to 2 – (13) – M83, M5, M57, M56, M29, M64, M12, M10, M107, M4, M80, M14, M9

2 to 3 – (5) – M71, M27, M39, M19, M62

3 to 4 – (15) – M11, M26, M17, M16, M18, M24, M25, M23, M20, M21, M8, M28, M22, M6, M7

4 to 5 – (7) - M15, M69, M54, M70, M73, M72, M75