Imagine yourself standing next to your telescope at evening twilight. It is late March. The sky is clear, the wind still. It is the night of the Messier Marathon. Tonight you will have the opportunity to locate and observe 110 galaxies, star clusters and nebulae cataloged 200 years ago by a French astronomer named Charles Messier. This basic list contains some of the best astronomical objects ever seen. Most amateur astronomers don't bother finding all of them in a lifetime; you are going to marathon through the whole list in one night.

You begin by working your way upward from the western horizon. After these galaxies you enter the open clusters and nebulae of the winter Milky Way. The variety of these wonders is astonishing.

Time passes quickly. You have been marathoning at a leisurely pace for nearly two hours now. Already you are examining the galaxies high in the sky near the Big Dipper. Next comes the area you have feared the most – the Virgo Galaxies. You set out on it using your trusty star chart. In twenty minutes you have picked up seventeen more Messier Objects. ‘This is easy,’ you think.

It is now 10:30 PM. You have seen sixty-six of the 110 Messier Objects.