Messier Marathon 2025
What are Messier Objects?
Beginning amateur astronomers soon encounter the term “Messier objects.” They learn that this is a list of objects outside our Solar System that are visible through small telescopes and originally compiled by Charles Messier, in the 18th century, from his observations and those of contributors. Back then the utility of this list was for comet hunters. Due to low-quality optics in the early centuries of telescope aided astronomy, many faint objects, that we wouldn’t confuse with comets today, appeared “fuzzy” (comet-like) and could be mistaken for such. Messier’s goal was to help comet hunters avoid “discovering” these known objects. The catalog has been updated over time, as recently as the mid-20th century, to 110 objects in total.
July 24, 2022 from near Voiron / Montaud, in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Messier’s translated description of this object begins as follows: “A cluster of stars which appears in the form of a nebula when viewed though an ordinary three-foot telescope; but with an excellent instrument one notices only a large quantity of small stars …”.
Messier’s Objects Rediscovered
His list is valued in modern times as a collection of “showpiece” objects, visible through small telescopes from northern latitudes. This is true due to the small instruments and northern hemisphere locations of the observers that contributed to the list. Every sky chart labels the location of these objects with the letter “M” and a number. For instance, the brightest Messier is M45 — the famous naked-eye Pleiades open star cluster. A third of the way around the sky you’ll find the dimmest: M95 — a galaxy of magnitude 10 or 11 (depending on the source) in Leo. Objects include supernova remnants (M1), open and globular clusters, planetary nebulae, diffuse nebulae, H II regions, a Milky Way star cloud, an asterism, a double star, and galaxies (such as M110).
A quirk of the list, when ordered by celestial coordinates in Right Ascension (RA), is that only one Messier object is found between RA 21:40 and 0:40. That lone object, open cluster M52 in Cassiopeia, never sets when viewed north of Florida. By the 1970s amateur astronomers realized that the Sun it located right in the aforementioned “Messier gap” around the dates of Vernal Equinox (Spring) in late March. This means all 110 Messier objects are on “either side” or “north” of the Sun and available for observation throughout the night — if an observer worked fast enough. Hence, the phrase “Messier Marathon” was invented to describe the all-night attempt.
Marathon Circumstances and Date
With the Sun in the Messier Gap, the possible date-range of the Marathon depends on your northern latitude and the occurrence of the New Moon. Tom Polakis has produced a Messier Marathon Observing Window chart that depicts the observing date window by latitude from late February to early April. It takes into account the beginning and end of nautical twilight (when the Sun is 12° below the horizon) and how that impacts the visibility of the Messier objects near the Sun. Increasing twilight is what prevents complete Marathons from being “run” in the far northern and extreme southern ranges of the Northern Hemisphere. For example, notice on the chart that only a subset of the objects are visible at 15° north latitude and below. Likewise, at 40° north latitude and above the number of viewing nights is very small.
On Polakis’ chart, if we pencil in some vertical lines a few days on either side of the New Moon date (where it rises or sets in twilight) we can select the most promising dates for a successful Messier Marathon. This year the New Moons occur on February 27th and March 29th. The first date allows for a partial Marathon at latitudes 10° north and below. The second date allows for a partial Marathon at 15 north and complete Marathons at 20° north latitude and above. This second date is centered on the weekend. That’s when most people will be “running” the event.
Gear for Running the Marathon
Telescope
Every Tele Vue refractor, from the Tele Vue-60 to the 5″ Tele Vue-NP127is, can give at least a 4° field with our low power eyepieces. This eliminates the need for magnifying finders. Instead, use our unit-power StarBeam (mobile site) with flip-mirror to comfortably aim the scope in the vicinity of the Messier object you are searching for.
From the powder-coated tubes and anodized aluminum finishes to the silky-smooth, lash-free focusing, these scopes are rugged and easily transported to dark-sky locations. Tele Vue telescopes are engineered and built to be your life-long observing companions; and someday, your kids’ as well.
All Tele Vue telescopes come with a 5-year Limited Warranty.
Eyepieces
The Tele Vue 32mm Plössl and 24mm Panoptic eyepieces allow you to experience the largest true field in 1¼” focusers and the 55mm Plössl and 41mm Panoptic do the same for 2″ focusers. The 31mm Nagler and 21mm Ethos eyepieces can be used to view at higher powers, yielding darker sky backgrounds, but with slightly smaller true fields of view than the Plössl or Panoptic eyepieces mentioned above. Try our Eyepiece Calculator (mobile version) to find the right eyepieces for your telescope.
Mounts
Since portability and ease-of-use are design goals for all Tele Vue telescopes, we developed alt-azimuth mounts that share these same goals. That makes our manually driven telescope mounts (mobile version) excellent for use during a Messier Marathon. Our aluminum Tele-Pod mount is a super portable complement to our smaller scopes and features glove-friendly locking clamps. Our wooden Gibraltar HD and Advanced Panoramic mounts, in addition to looking great, naturally absorb energy for quick vibration dampening.
The Marathon Viewing Sequence and “Rules“
Traditionally the Messier Marathon is done without a computerized scope mount, as an automated scope would make the task too easy. Newcomers to the hobby, who are just learning how the Messier objects appear in their scopes, may run a goto version of the Marathon to familiarize themselves with the targets as a warm-up to doing it manually in later year.
The typical Marathon sequence is to start spotting the objects in deep twilight that are about to set in the west: M74, M77, M33, M31, and M32 (all on the left side of sky map). The observer continues to sweep up objects moving eastward until they reach the eastern horizon, where Messier objects continue to rise all night. As morning twilight begins, they scramble to identify M2, M72, M73, and M30 (right side of the sky map) before the Sun blots them out from the sky. The exact viewing order is latitude dependent and there is some debate.
The All Arizona Messier Marathon checklist in PDF form from the Saguaro Astronomy Club (located 33° North latitude) is a typical list. Bill Ferris offers an alternate Messier Marathon Search Sequence he claims is good from 30° — 40° north latitude. It blocks out groups of objects by the time at night you should be viewing them. It also includes a two-hour nap time! SEDS.org has a Messier Marathon Observer’s Form in the order determined by Don Machholz (one of the founders of the Messier Marathon) that is said to be good for 20° — 40° north latitude. For a customized list by location and horizon conditions, see the interactive Messier Marathon Planner by Larry McNish that is hosted on the Calgary Centre RASC website.
Marathon’s End
If morning twilight brightens and you find yourself short of several globular clusters on the list, it will still be a memorial night. Try to beat your score in the following years until you reach all 110 objects!
We wish you good luck with the Marathon, whether done in the backyard or at an organized event. Did you observe with Tele Vue gear? We’ll like your social media post on that if you tag it #televue MessierMarathon and the gear used. Example:
#televue #MessierMarathon #Ethos 6mm
Do you want your Tele Vue images re-posted on Tele Vue Optics’ Social Media accounts? Use this hashtag for consideration:
#RPTVO
More Info
- If you’d like to “browse” through the objects for planning purposes, Wikipedia has a table of Messier object that can be sorted by name, position, magnitude, etc.
- Information on the Arizona Spring Star Party and Messier Marathon
- Tele Vue telescopes on our website, Why Choose Tele Vue Scopes article (mobile version)
- Tele Vue eyepieces on our website, Why Choose Tele Vue Eyepieces article (mobile version)
- Tele Vue mounts on our website (mobile version)
