The 2009 SFAA Messier Marathon was held on March 28th. Here is the write up on how things went that night as copied from out newsletter.
Charles Messier was a French astronomer whose goal was to discover as many comets as possible and was called the "Ferret of Comets" by Louis XV. He was a rock star of the times. Curiously he is known for discovering or co-discovering 103 objects that are NOT comets. Seven more objects were added later. Explaining his reason for meticulously mapping the location of these objects in 1801 roughly quoting from his journal Connaissance des Temps: " What caused me to undertake the catalog was the nebula I discovered above the southern horn of Taurus on September 12, 1758, while observing the comet of that year. This nebula had such a resemblance to a comet in its form and brightness that I endeavored to find others so that astronomers would not confuse these same nebulae with comets just appearing." That object was later to become known as M 1, the Crab Nebula.
The Messier Marathon was invented independently by several North American amateurs including Tom Hoffelder, Tom Reiland, perhaps one Spanish amateur astronomer and our very own Don Machholz.
On Mount Tamalpais on Saturday, March 28, 2009, French astronomer Charles Messier, made his annual apparition to initiate the mighty minions to the Marathon. We endured French pastries, attempted the mutual satisfaction of attempting to achieve our common goal, jovial jousting and conferred on how bad Saturn looked in our respective telescope eyepieces.
Monsieur Messier observed Saturn in Jared's Vixen and found it appeared to look more like a galaxy than a planet! At that point we all decided to call it quits and head down the mountain, refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to try again this fall in conjunction with the Sonoma County Astronomical Society at Lake Sonoma for the Second Annual Mini-Messier Marathon.
Submitted by Mssr. Messier
