How difficult is it to do the Messier Marathon?

I have an 8 inch Dob which would let me see all of them in good skies. Usually how long does it take to do the Messier Marathon? Is it so fast paced that you spend more time locating than observing? (Probably not).





Also, when is a good time to do it and in what order should i observe each Messier Object?|||I am a very experienced observer, but I have never done a Messier Marathon. Racing against time just doesn't appeal to me. I have observed all the Messier objects at least twice, but each time was over a two year period where I could appreciate each object for itself. The Marathon is more about finding than observing, since there simply is not enough time to do both. You see the object and then immediately move on to the next one. This just has no appeal to me. If you're experienced, the Marathon is not all that difficult, but it's almost essential to have observed all the objects at least once under more leisurely circumstances.|||You need to do some research regarding specifics, but its typically an all night thing. There are 110 objects, some of which are only visible right at sundown, some right at sunrise.





If you had 8 hours of usable darkness, you'd only be able to spend 4 /12 minutes per object - locating and observing.|||No need to do it over a single night, but the window of opportunity is narrow.





Read this blog by Rod Mollise. There's an interesting take on it from March 21, about 3/4 of the way down the page, once you get used to Rod's prose style.





http://uncle-rods.blogspot.com/|||The best time to do a Messier Marathon is New Moon in March. It does take all night, and an 8 inch scope is fine. Messier himself used small telescopes from Paris. I have done 2 marathons using a 10 inch. The toughest part is staying awake and warm all night, as well as finding a dark enough sky. I have done 2 marathons some years back and got 87 objects the first time and 99 the second time.


There is plenty of information on the net as well as some books. The best one is "The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide" by Pennington:


http://www.amazon.com/Year-Round-Messier鈥?/a>


If your scope doesn't have a Telrad finder, then get one as it makes star hopping a whole lot easier:


as I also used these books:


"FINDER CHARTS OF THE MESSIER OBJECTS (2-VOLUMES) Volume 1-M1 through M55; Volume 2-M56 through M110 " by Brent Watson:


http://www.amazon.com/FINDER-MESSIER-OBJ鈥?/a>





A great source for research is SEDS Messier Marathon web page with LOTS of information. I even have a couple of posts there myself.


http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/maratho鈥?/a>