Gadget Gypsy

Although the evening telescope set-up began with the finding of our most unexpected hitchhiker who was probably truly regretting its choice of cover, I wasn’t fully involved with the idea of the Marathon at the beginning of the night; but as the night wore on and the visitors were readily enthusiastic, I gained momentum!

Andy has posted a nice write-up on the event at Darkerview.com with lots of detail on this marathon, and links that describe a Messier Marathon and its origin as well as links to his post for the 2006 All Arizona Messier Marathon that was my very first marathon (Oh…and I viewed 106 to his 104 Messier objects! This also got a plaque for my NexStar 11 GPS Computerized Telescope, GyPSy).

Since 2006 was my very first marathon, I consider it to be more my coup de theatre than this year’s is for Andy who has been in…hmmm…five marathons(?). Not to mention that the air at 9200 feet was so ‘dry’ that combined with my insulating layers of fleece (AND Andy’s), the static kept making me reset and re-align GyPSy so I could not only get her back on track again; but I could also read the display. I am suspicious of Andy’s ‘sparking’ GyPSy on purpose a couple of times though… 😉 We were also not ready for the horizons changing the ‘rise’ time in the morning of M31, M32, M33 and maybe M52, M74 and M110 so I was ‘skunked’ for catching up.

My concentration may have also been distracted from the marathon because I kept returning to M42 (the Orion Nebula) and M43 (also part of the Orion Nebula). The public that managed to make it to the VIS, repeatedly requested to see the Orion Nebulae as well as M1 (the Crab Nebula) 😀 I could not bring myself to refuse their requests because first of all, M42 is my Favorite Messier object and M1 was right there very close by. Second, I enjoy the visitors’ reactions and comments at seeing these objects under any conditions, especially for the first time! It takes me back to my first viewings of any of the objects in our night sky! If my efforts can get some of our visitors interested in science, any science, then ‘freezing’ is worth it! For those with concerns of what became of our (well…Cliff’s) hitchhiker, check out my entry: “The rescue and release of our unexpected hitchhiker…” 😀