The Messier Marathon is a race against the rotation of the Earth. In late March, the Sun is positioned in a "gap" in the Messier catalog, making it theoretically possible to see every single object—from the Andromeda Galaxy to the M30 globular cluster—between dusk and dawn.The following list is made for those around 40-41 degrees North Latitude. This is a great year to give this a try! New Moon is on Wednesday, March 18th and the position of the Sun is great to really give this a try if you want. I last did this for the third time in March of 2012 and I haven't done it since. I won't, as it is not how I like to observe. However, it is worth trying a couple of times to see how many you can get. I sucessfully did it three times and tried it five times. I learned from the first two times trying it. Here is the video on it.
To get the recommended list and order of objects in either PDF or as a Google Doc (go to File, Make a Copy to get your own Google Doc copy) head over to EadsyAstronomy at this LINK.
