OR: "Messier Marathon" at Pinnacles NP West

[mtoma...@outlook.com]

Better late than never…

Here’s a brief write-up on the “Messier Marathon” themed casual stargazing gathering on Saturday, 3/21 through Sunday, 3/22, held at the west entrance parking lot at Pinnacles National Park.

Here’s a group photo of the participants:
 

Who’s who:
Front row, L-to-R:  Jean P., PhD (of MIRA), Daniel C., PhD (of MIRA)
Back row, L-to-R:   Jim B., Jeff G. (of SCAC), Bill S., Mark T., Dean R., Timothy B., Ron K., Ron L.

Except for Jeff G., all participants are registered members of the MIRA Astronomy Club.  (Being a member means that you are in our email database.  There are no club dues.)

About half of us stayed the whole night.

The skies were clear all night, if a bit soft in the seeing.  Much colder than I had dressed for.  But no humidity.

I saw 103 Messier objects, plus a few interesting NGC objects.  I did not “find” any of them.  My telescope did.  And I was very appreciative of that.  :-)

I stupidly wasted time in the early evening, thus missing three of the first six Messier objects.  The next morning, the eastern hill and a tree obscured any chance of capturing the last four Messier objects.
 
My three favorite sights:

1. M46, a fairly dense open cluster with a very bright planetary nebula (NGC 2438) in either the foreground or background.
2. An equilateral triangle of galaxies:  M84, M86 and NGC 4388.
3. NGC 4565, “Needle Galaxy”, the largest edge-on galaxy as seen from earth.  16’ long.

As reported previously, one of the rangers was kind enough to turn off the floodlight (or its motion sensor) outside the visitor center building for us.  (Bill S. had mounted his aluminum foil hood onto the sensor beforehand, but it was not necessary.)

Mark T.