Sky & Telescope August 2000 [antikvár]

Running Running When Gary Seronik showed me the final stats concerning our Messier Marathon (his summary appeared in the July issue, page 122), I was disappointed. We had given this competition solid play in the March issue and on our Web site, with lots of tips on how to do the job right. But in the end, only 692 people registered only 0.5 percent of the folks who buy Sky Telescope every month.I didn't think more about it until April, on the weekend following our famous Boston Marathon. The race had more than 18,000 official runners this year, of whom about two score could be regarded as "elite"; that is, you mighthave considered betting money on any of them to win. So the trotting creme de la creme represented 0.2 percent of the field. A little more arithmetic made me feel better. Of the 692 registered Messier Marathoners, 204 actually went out and did something, seeing at least 10 celestial gems in a single night. And 31 our creme de la creme garnered 100 or more. That works out to 4.5 percent of the registrants and 15 percent of those who actually ran the race. No, I didn't do either marathon: competition, even against myself, isn't my bag. Unfortunately, when I was an obsessive observer, the Messier Marathon hadn't been invented. It should have been in southern California, where I grew up, and where the sky was always clear, the seeing was always great, and the amateur astronomers were all above average.Another (very-small-sample) statistic that I found provocative is that 25 percent of the Go To telescope users found at least 100 Messiers as opposed to 14 percent of those doing it "the old-fashioned way." Go To haters can justifiably say "Big deal!" while Go To lovers can act smug.I hope that next year more excitement and participation builds around the Messier Marathon. It really is a superb challenge to one's skills tactical as well as observational. (For another challenge, check out the globular marathon described on page 116.)