J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 108, 4, 1998, p.226

The Year-Round Messier Marathon Field Guide

by Harvard Pennington

Willmann-Bell Inc, 1998. ISBN 0-943396-54-9. Pp x + 196, $19.95 (hbk.)

reviewed by Owen Brazell

For a number of years the Messier Marathon has been a popular pastime in North America. The independent discovery by a number of people that during a certain period in late March/early April, all 110 Messier objects could be seen during one night when viewed from mid-northern latitudes, gave rise to popular club observing sessions. During its first few years the Marathon generated some controversy amongst the deep sky community, as it was felt that merely finding and logging an object without examining it did not do much to help people learn observing skills. In recent times however the Messier Marathon has grown in popularity throughout the US and Canada and many clubs now plan a session every season.

A number of publications have grown up around the Marathon concept, but most, such as Don Macholz's, are only available privately. Pennington's book, published posthumously, is the first commercial book on the subject. It starts with a history of the Marathon along with useful sections describing how to choose a site for attempting one, and how to learn your way around the stars. There are short descriptions of the various types of objects to be found in Messier's catalogue. The heart of the book is a collection of finder charts of all the Messier objects in roughly the order in which one would try and observe them during a Marathon. For each object the entry consists of a drawing of the object along with a description and a large scale chart showing its rough position. To help in locating the object views of the field through a finder scope are also presented. It is a nice touch to provide visual drawings rather than photographs as these give a better idea of what may be seen.

I found very few errors in the book, except for placing M15 in Sagittarius rather than Pegasus, and I would think that as a basic guide for beginners looking to find the Messier objects for the first time as well as observers planning a Marathon this is a useful book. As a beginner's guide it can be recommended and given the very reasonable price clubs might like to add it to their libraries as an idea for observing sessions. It could also help as a guide towards obtaining the BAA Messier certificate from the Deep Sky Section. It should be noted that from UK latitudes the full Messier Marathon is not possible, but many observers might like to see how many they can find in a single night.

As well as being a member of the BAA Council and former assistant director of the Deep Sky Section, Owen Brazell edits the Webb Society deep sky magazine and writes a deep sky column for Astronomy Now. He can also be found trying to observe faint fuzzy objects from home, when the clouds and his job as a software engineer in the oil industry co-operate.

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