It’s the only marathon I could ever do!

One word I rarely use is “marathon”, firstly because I’m not really a sport fan, the only time I’m ever likely to run is if there were a Tiger chasing me, and secondly because they’re now called “Snickers”. A stupid idea if you ask me, but you didn’t, so I’ll get back on track.

Despite astronomy involving lots of standing still looking through a telescope, we do have a couple of marathons that we take part in. The foremost of these is The Messier Marathon, it’s not really a speed thing, a Messier Marathon can take up to a year to complete, depending on the weather. It is, however, a great way of honing your skills, and pushing your kit to its limits.

So, what is a Messier Marathon? And why Messier?

It all began in 1774, Charles Messier published a list of forty-five Deep Sky Objects. Despite its popularity with astronomers today, Messiers’ list wasn’t compiled as a list of interesting observational targets, it was actually a list of objects to avoid.

Messier was a comet chaser, in the night sky comets appear as fuzzy grey patches against the sky. The problem for Messier was that Deep Sky Objects (DSO’s) also appear as fuzzy grey patches against the sky. Messier started to compile a list of “Fuzzy Grey Objects” that other comet chasers could avoid. By 1781 the list had grown to 103 DSO’s that comet chasers could avoid.

Between 1921 and 1966 a further seven objects were added to the list, bringing The Messier Catalogue to 110 deep sky objects. By this time the list had become popular with amateur astronomers. Not because they wanted to avoid those objects, more because the list included some of the brightest and most spectacular objects that could be observed with a small telescope. Messier used a 3-inch refractor, advancements in lens and mirror manufacture means that a telescope of similar size will provide a much greater reward, indeed a high proportion of the Messier objects can be observed with a good pair of binoculars of at least 10x50.

The problem for me is the latitude I live at, 51° North, when Messier was creating his list of “not comets” he was living in Paris, the latitude is 48° 58 minutes North. That’s a difference in latitude of around 3° as the crow flies that’s about 163 miles.

This means that some of the objects that are closer to the celestial equator don’t get very high in the sky for me and they can be quite tricky to observe. Some of the objects are seasonal. The objects cover a wide range of magnitude, from +1.45 to as faint as +11.5. The list features a variety of objects from clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Only one object on the list, M73, is a small group of four stars. Messier believed he could see a nebulous cloud around the stars, better telescopes have since shown he was mistaken.

The odd thing about Messier’s list is that there’s no order to it, the objects aren’t listed in the order they were discovered, some were known long before the existence of the list. Every single object on the list is a spectacular object and a great many, if not all, of them are much favoured by astro-photographers.

Messier passed away on April 12 1817 at the age of 86, he has left a legacy that will endure for years to come, a list that will inspire and encourage astronomers of all ages, and experience to get out and observe.

I’ve provided a link for a complete Messier list and a list that is tailored for binoculars, objects on the binocular list are listed in order of magnitude from brightest to faintest.

Messier Binocular list

Messier Catalogue

If you're familiar with the Messier Catalogue, please feel free to comment with your favourite object. If you have images of any of the objects, perhaps you could submit them for display on the gallery page. You will be credited for your image.