OR - Messier Maration at West Pinnacles - Wed 18 March

[Frank Graham]

(Resending, hoping my photos are small enough to pass size restrictions)

Post all nighter exhaustion Thursday and commitments Friday, I am finally putting pen to paper...

I left San Mateo at 1430 and still hit southbound traffic along CA-85 and US-101.  Familiar with that route, Mark Tomalonis would later tell me, if you want to avoid traffic then leave by 1230.  I will have to incorporate that insightful start time whenever heading down to Pinnacles, Henry Coe, Tranquility Base, etc.  I would rather arrive early and go for a hike in the heat than sit in a car creeping along.  Knowing I needed to be fortified for a long night ahead, I stopped at T&A Cafe, Home of Kleinfeldt Family BBQ, in Salinas.  I had never been before, and was pleased by the rather tasty BBQ and sides.   Based on the scale of their parking lot they must cater to truckers who need lots of protein to keep on truckin'.  Duly fortified I drove the remaining 45 min to West Pinnacles via some relatively narrow winding and undulating roads but without that sense of a steep climb you feel approaching Henry Coe overflow lot.  I passed Peter Natscher, Dave Cooper and Jim Bahn on the west side of the lot and parked in an angled spot 2 spaces shy of Mark Tomalonis on the eastern side to give me a slightly better western view for improved chances of catching the early setting Messier objects.  

Sporting a TAC t-shirt and shorts for the ~85F temperature, I introduced myself to Peter Natscher and Dave Cooper setting up their respective 16" JP Astrocraft and New Moon Dobsonians for a night of visual observing.  Over the years Peter has enjoyed a myriad of telescopes and shared his own experiences with a few scopes that I have only read about.  One of the many things I love about getting together with other astronomers is hearing those practical insights and comparisons that typically are not available on product websites or reviews.  I walked over to Jim Bahn who was setting up his multiple smart/Seestar telescopes and a visual C5. He was looking forward to a night of real time image stacking and collecting data for later processing.  Amazingly, Mark was single-handedly setting up his  22" Dobsonian which despite its aperture seemed relatively compact given its f3.3 speed.  It even has a pre-production Nexus eFinder designed by Keith Venables in conjunction with Serge at Astro Devices.  It's really cool that there are now at least 3 plate solving models on the market:  PiFinder, Astro Devices eFinder and Clear Skies Astro Hopper.

I got to work on laying down a tarp, old bed sheet, and foam mats on top of the asphalt.  I dropped an eyepiece once on concrete, although ironically I haven't since I started laying down a softer landing ground.  FWIW, the asphalt was quite warm and retained its warmth throughout the night, but not enough to stave off dew in the early morning hours.  About the time I was balancing my 130mm f8 refractor on a push to DM6 AltAz mount with a red dot finder, a Nexus DSC Pro encoder and a CS Astro Hopper, I noticed there were a lot more bugs in my ears, neck and eyes than drier Henry Coe, so baggy pants and jacket came on despite the heat.  Thankfully, the bugfest only lasted 30 minutes after sunset, upon which they left me alone for the night.

Jamie Dillon arrived with his compact Albert Highe 13" Dobsonian and later in the night presented two memorable firsts: Omega Centauri low on the horizon and an unusual storm on Jupiter's NEB overhead.  Unfortunately, I missed taking photos of Mark and Jamie, but did catch Peter, Dave and Jim (see photos below).  Peter encouraged me to publish an astronomer and their equipment calendar ;-)

After dark a couple parked across from us to enjoy the evening sky, naked eye.  Mark graciously invited them over to share views through his scope.  Around 2300 Mark announced he would start packing up, so Jamie and I walked over to get some views through his awesome scope.  I really enjoyed M1, not having seen the outer perimeter of the Crab Nebula let alone the inner filaments so well defined.  We stalled Mark until midnight 

As for the Messier Marathon from a newbie perspective, I'll share my impressions and suggestions if you want to undertake one:

1.  Start with M31.  Some lists refer to the first 12 objects as the "Twilight Rush" occurring between 1900 and 2030.   Between the rush moniker and Don Maccholz list beginning with M77 and M74, I frantically panned back and forth between where my Nexus DSC Pro said they should be.   Granted I was using a 130mm refractor, so greater aperture would certainly have helped.  At this point thinking I had a bad start, I acquiesced and decided, may as well go to the 3rd item on the list:  M31.  When I couldn't see the Andromeda Galaxy at 5.7 Mag, how in the world was I going to see 8.9 let alone 9.4 Mag galaxies.  At 2006, I spotted M31 against the bright western horizon and focused on teasing out M32 and M110 over the next 15 min.  Getting used to squeezing out white on white, I then went back to M77 and M74, another pair of white galaxies against a white background.  Once past those initial galaxies made faint by the bright horizon, the next two open clusters were easy to spot against the now darkening sky, and by the time I hit M76 Little Dumbbell Nebula, astronomical twilight had already begun.

2.  Multiple Finder Methods especially at dusk or dawn.  While I set up and aligned my Nexus DSC Pro with stars toward the east, I smugly thought my new plate solving solution would carry the entire dusk through dawn marathon.  However, when I pointed my Hopper toward the bright west it struggled to get navigational fixes.  I further handicapped my Hopper by placing it aft on my refractor where a good portion of its field of view was filled with my OTA's white reflection...doh.  Ironically, once aligned Nexus DSC Pro doesn't care if there's a bright light, cloud, etc. it will help you point your scope to where the object should be.  This approach bailed me out during Twilight Rush, and again during Morning Dawn Rush for all but my nemesis M30 that took its sweet time to crest the hill 2.5° above the horizon against a very bright background at 0634 (see photo looking down my OTA).  I was able to intermittently spot nearby 41 Cap, a 5.23 Mag star, but alas M30 6.9 Mag was lost in the white morass.  In the dark of night, even with practically half its FOV blocked, the Hopper was fantastic at telling me where I was pointed no matter how quickly I panned across the sky.

3. Pace yourself and orient yourself.  In all the excitement, I was speedily and myopically using Sky Safari presenting Hopper/Nexus DSC Pro locations to place objects in the center FOV, log the sequence number, time, eyepiece, and make notes/drawings.  FYI paper and pencil work great when dry ;-)  I finally moved my clipboard under my van hatchback to avoid dew.  Anyway, I set way too fast an initial pace that resulted in a blur of observations.  As my mentor Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves pretty fast.  You don't stop and look around once in a while you could miss it."  The times I felt most connected was when I was able to place an object in the FOV using only my red dot finder with both eyes open taking in the broad context of the enclosing constellation.  My best was M57 where I know where it is relative to 2 stars in Lyrae and I placed the red dot on that invisible spot and voila, M57 is in the eyepiece, very satisfying.  Equally fun was M13 in Hercules.  That one at 5.8 Mag I could see with averted vision at Pinnacles and place the red dot on it.  Up at Barcroft Station's 12,000 feet, I can see it directly.  When I realized that at one point I was 2 hours ahead of schedule and had to wait for objects to rise, I ensured for each subsequent object that while I used Hopper/Nexus, I would immediately move my head to the red dot finder and see where this object was relative to the constellation's stars.  I cannot do this in light polluted San Mateo, where only the moon and planets are readily visible, hence for me an even greater imperative to take advantage of darker skies to learn my way around.

4.  Group same size objects.  While my most commonly used eyepiece was the Panoptic 19mm (55x with 1.5° FOV), early in the marathon I found myself alternating with my Pentax 40mm (26x with 2.5°) or Delos 10mm (104x with 0.7°).  Grouping them by eyepiece would've been convenient and leave me more time to soak in the object in the context of its surroundings.

5.  Be prepared to move.  To have a better eastern horizon view at 0524, I took down, moved and realigned my rig on the western most parking space to catch M55, M2, M72 and M73.

6.  Bring lots of hot or cold liquids to stay hydrated and awake.  I brought a large thermos of tea and paper cups to share.  The hot tea was especially helpful around 0400 when I was alone in the parking lot and almost lost my mojo.  Earlier in the evening Mark and Jamie shared yummy cookies and Graham crackers, just the right kind of sugar fix at the right time.

Anyway, I relished the challenge and was rewarded by the experience of seeing 109 Messier objects in one night.  I would not be adverse to joining another group marathon with clean horizons all round (I'm looking at you, M30).  However, I am leaning more toward Dave and Jamie's approach of lingering on fewer objects, especially as I would be hard pressed right now to find the vast majority of Messier objects with nothing but a red dot finder and memory of their locations within a constellation.

Gotta love this hobby, an infinite amount to learn and see with great companionship and so much fun along the way.

Once last and IMPORTANT note, the bathroom lights are motion triggered and duration timed.  So, hypothetically, if a newbie at Pinnacles were to walk down to the bathroom, not only would he be self-blinded outside the bathroom (his eyes would subsequently be cauterized inside the bathroom proper), he would then enjoy the walk of shame back up to the parking lot during the 5-8 minutes the bathroom lights continue to supernova the other observers, all the while saying, "Yeah.  That was me, Newbie, who just took out your night vision for 30 minutes."  It's a rite of passage that is totally avoidable.  Just ask the others what the agreed upon protocol is.  Although I still question Peter's suggestion of "Walk by rattlesnake knoll, left by cougar gully, and stop in front of bear tree, then you can relieve yourself without triggering any lights" ;-)

BTW, the rangers start to drive by around 0530 with their cars often triggering the above mentioned bathroom lights.  The bathroom cleaning staff arrive around 0600 but by then Nautical Dawn is rapidly becoming Civil Dawn with M30 taunting you.

Good luck and clear skies free of bathroom lighting,

Frank Graham

[Rod Brown]

Great report! 

Your challenges at twilight with plate solving indicate that I was probably lucky (I certainly was smart enough to know) that I made the right choice with my NexStar 8SE and its encoders, vs. the PiFinder on one of my other scopes. 

Rod

[miloc...@gmail.com]

Great OR Frank.  Per your experience, and our Saturday MM, I recommend setting up at the far end of the parking lot on the left-hand side, for the best possible chance of getting the early morning objects.

Jim Bahn

On Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 7:14:49 PM UTC-7 Frank Graham wrote:

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

My Joey and I are meeting buddies at the T&A Cafe on Wednesday for lunch. Good food friendly people. Tanimura and Antle is a major grower and shipper. You guessed it, Kleinfeldt Family BBQ, is a serious truck stop.

And about those floods at the visitors center, Frank, like I said that was partly my fault. Before sunset I was considering warning you about those lights, went "aah he likely knows all about 'em, don't be so propietary." No one was upset, and it is cool to see that they stay on only 5 minutes, down from 20 once upon a time.

[John Pierce]

On Sun, Mar 22, 2026 at 8:37 PM Jamie Dillon, DDK <ngc1...@gmail.com> wrote:

My Joey and I are meeting buddies at the T&A Cafe on Wednesday for lunch. Good food friendly people. Tanimura and Antle is a major grower and shipper. You guessed it, Kleinfeldt Family BBQ, is a serious truck stop.

And about those floods at the visitors center, Frank, like I said that was partly my fault. Before sunset I was considering warning you about those lights, went "aah he likely knows all about 'em, don't be so propietary." No one was upset, and it is cool to see that they stay on only 5 minutes, down from 20 once upon a time.

I assume you know about Bill's 'foil hat' for those lights?   a lightweight telescoping pole with a foil 'hat' that sits on the PIR sensor for the lights completely disables them.   Of course, its been like 5 years since I've been there, so I dunno if its still the same setup. 

[Bill Seiler]

The ranger turned off those lights for us!

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