Dust off your telrad's and review your sky charts for the 3rd FWAS Annual Messier Marathon. Yes club members, it is that time of year to see all 110 Messier objects in one night. Saturday night, March 16th is the time to head out to the club observatory. Be there before sunset because things start fast after dark. In the 17th century, Charles Messier, an avid comet hunter kept getting distracted by "false comets". He marked these irritations on maps to avoid wasting time searching for his comets. He did discover 19 comets!, however his fame today rests with the distractions he so wanted to avoid. There are officially 110 Messier Objects. These irritations have since been resolved into some of the finest nebula, star clusters, and galaxies!

During the Spring, near new moon, it is statistically possible to see all of them in one night if you have a sharp eye, clean optics and a good observing site. Naturally, knowing their location and having seen them before on a less hectic night gives you an extreme advantage to accomplish your goal. Some want to try all 110, some want to see the first group of 45 (the easiest). Others want to try how many can be logged in numerical order, one observer saw M2 thru M34 in one hour! Some use telescopes, others use binoculars. The bottom line is you choose your own goal. We will have a suggested order list and a simple sky map to help you along. You are your own monitor, this isn't a competition between members for who logs the most. This is an excuse to get you to the observatory and to enjoy the night sky, to watch what others are doing and perhaps get some ideas for your own Marathon.

Naturally, obscuring phenomena (clouds) and rain can destroy the best made plans. One of our "sky pups" has pointed out since the last 2 years have been failures due to the "Baja Express" rain storms, shouldn't this be the first annual? We say "bah-humbug", we have 2 years of practice and preparation to make this the best one we have ever done. Whether it be the first or the third, come on out and enjoy the spring sky.

This month we will look at Jupiter. Jupiter is the 5th planet from the sun, at a distance of 5.2 AU (484mi). I has a rotation of 9.9 hours and an orbit of 11.9 years. It has been known since man first looked to the heavens and was known as one of the wonderers, or to the greeks Zeus (Jove) KING OF THE GODS, and father of Cronus (Saturn). Jupiter has 28 known satellites, but only 4 are highly visible in small scopes. It is the largest gas giant in the solar system, it is composed of about 90% hydrogen, 10% helium, and traces of methane, water, ammonia, and rock. Above the core is thought to be liquid metallic hydrogen -- now that's some pressure!

Contrary to popular belief -- Jupiter is not close to becoming a star. It would have to be 80 times more massive to become a star. And Jupiter does have rings, although not as stable as Saturn's. Their material is made of dust and rock, and is not very reflective. The material comes from impact with Jupiter's moons and in the end falls victim to Jupiter's gravity and thus falls into Jupiter. Jupiter gives off more heat than it takes in, which causes much of the turbulence in the atmosphere. The vivid colors in Jupiter's atmosphere appear to be caused by subtle reactions of the trace elements in the atmosphere. The Great Red Spot has been known to be raging for 300 yrs. But that's as long as man has seen it, so it is probably far older. The GRS is large enough to hold 2 earths, and scientists are not sure why it persists so long. The light color bands are called ZONES and the dark are called BANDS. They move in opposite directions and winds can exceed 400 mph.

To locate Jupiter this month go outside about 8pm and look straight up. Look for the brightest object other than the moon and that's it. The images were taken with a Quickcam VC about 1 year ago.