Messier Marathon 2009

The 2009 Messier Marathon will perhaps be one of the last occasions to combine a nine-planet marathon with the Messier event, but Neptune will be extremely difficult if at all possible, Uranus also difficult in the morning. Some comets brighter than about mag 14.0 may be visible; we will list them below from various sources (e.g., IAU's Observable Comets page, Gary Kronk's list of current comets and the Fachgruppe Kometen list):

Comet                       RA  (2000.0)  Dec  mag
                                March 30, 2009

Note that occasionally comets become bright shortly (like Hyakutake in 1996, Ikeya-Zhang and Utsunomiya in 2002), so check back for possible updates shortly before Marathon date.

Also, meteors from various showers may occur, and depending on your location, you may be able to observe the International Space Station, ISS.

• The 2009 All Arizona Messier Marathon is scheduled for March 28/29, 2009. This event is sponsored again by the Saguaro Astronomy Club (SAC) (for the 17th time), and will be held again at the site south of Arizona City. - A.J. Crayon & Jack Jones
  Also see SAC's 2009 All Messier Marathon announce.

If you have undertaken, or participated in, a Messier Marathon, 2009 or earlier, if not already done so, please send me your or your group's results, or the link to your results page, for inclusion in our Messier Marathon Results page!

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]

Last Modification: November 25, 2008