Grasslands Observatory - Essays - A Photographic Messier Marathon

The marathon was very successful with photography starting one-half hour after sunset and proceeding until fifteen minutes before sunrise. 96 frames on four rolls of film were exposed. 103 total objects can be identified on contact prints of the negatives. 84 of them are Messier objects, and 19 are assorted NGC or IC objects. One hundred of the total objects were photographed with the 24-inch telescope. The Pleiades (M45) and the Orion Nebula region (M42/43) were taken through the five-inch f/5 finder telescope which afforded us a large enough field of view for these objects. Twelve of the frames were ruined by wind and other problems. Vigorous wind gusts made telescope tracking impossible and shut us down for two hours from 10:30pm to 12:30am. We averaged about 12 objects per hour and could conceivably have photographed nearly 100 Messier objects if the wind had not interfered. To view our images go to the Photographic Messier Marathon Album.

The four rolls of film were developed by a Fast 1-hour Foto Store with excellent results. The rolls were run through the processor with the same setting used for Konica 400 film. Even though our intention was not to produce beautiful pictures, but merely to get as many recognizable images as possible, we did obtain a surprisingly fair number of nice photographs. Many of the pictures were somewhat marred by large streaks of static electricity discharge, a problem we had previously not encountered. The relative humidity at the observatory was only 4% along with considerable wind and dust. Static electricity was very evident about the observatory and the telescope. Every attempt was made to handle the film carefully and not wind or rewind it rapidly. Nevertheless, static discharge was a problem and might conceivably be a particular nuisance with hypersensitized film used under very dry conditions. We recommend careful film handling with slow film rewinding. Grounding the telescope and the camera might also be helpful under these types of conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

It is possible to photograph the vast majority of the Messier objects in one night. It is probably not possible to photograph them all, because some of the very early evening and early morning objects will be low on the horizon and burned out by twilight. They are difficult enough to see even with a large telescope, let alone photograph well. It is probably possible to obtain pictures of 100 of the Messier objects in an evening if you plan well, have luck, good equipment, and superb viewing conditions. If you like astrophotography and want a challenge, give it a try. A photographic Messier Marathon is mainly done for the fun of it, but it does have an added benefit. You now have a consecutive series of pictures of the Messier objects all taken with the same equipment and film and with the same observing conditions, if you discount photographs of those objects low in the sky. It is now possible to do rapid side by side comparisons of the objects' relative size, brightness, and color. This is something that is not yet available from any book or published picture set.

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