{"id":342306,"date":"2026-03-12T11:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/342306\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:46:08","slug":"the-messier-marathon-is-coming-heres-how-to-see-110-deep-sky-wonders-in-one-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/342306\/","title":{"rendered":"The Messier Marathon is coming. Here\u2019s how to see 110 deep-sky wonders in one night."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Messier catalog includes some of the most famous deep-sky objects visible from Earth, each designated by the letter M followed by a number. Among them are the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way; the Orion Nebula (M42), a glowing stellar nursery visible within Orion\u2019s Belt; and the Pleiades (M45), an open star cluster of blue stars often called the Seven Sisters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">(<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/science\/article\/milky-way-galaxy-facts-black-hole-stars-space-science\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Here are 10 weird things you (probably) didn&#8217;t know about the Milky Way<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Most Messier objects can be seen with modest backyard telescopes or even binoculars under dark skies\u2014and some, like the Orion Nebula, are bright enough to be seen with the naked eye.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA hsDdd cBQOR tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE GpQCA lZur BOsoU YMZw dihEb srtah LmIPo JzlZQ VbrfA zZsl kjmkg OwbFk QuuaM tOHqz GfDiz rCJMb HxCWP \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/subscribe\/magazines?cmpid=int_org=ngp::int_mc=website::int_src=ngp::int_cmp=bau2026::int_add=alltitles_articlepromo\" aria-label=\"For curious minds of all ages\" aria-describedby=\"\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/alltitlesBAUiap_2x1.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For curious minds of all ages<\/p>\n<p>Subscriptions starting at $39\/year<\/p>\n<p>What is the Messier Marathon?<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That catalog eventually inspired one of amateur astronomy\u2019s most demanding observing challenges. Completing the marathon used to be significantly harder before the invention of digital sky maps and \u201cGoTo\u201d telescopes, which have computerized systems that automatically locate and point toward celestial targets, says Gallaway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cWhen I started, the marathon was an exercise in \u2018star-hopping,\u2019 a slow, meditative, and often frustrating crawl across paper star charts,\u201d says Gallaway, who admits he never completed a full Messier Marathon. \u201cNow I\u2019ve got a lot more free time and much better equipment, including two smart and three robotic telescopes,\u201d says Gallaway, \u201cI will give it a go again after a 35-year break!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Messier catalog includes some of the most famous deep-sky objects visible from Earth, each designated by the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[86286,156690,156688,156687,61,60,156689,156685,156686,113885,82,7138,156691],"class_list":["post-342306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-amateur-astronomy","tag-backyard-astronomy","tag-charles-messier","tag-deep-sky-objects","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-messier-catalog","tag-messier-marathon","tag-messier-objects","tag-night-sky-events","tag-science","tag-stargazing","tag-stargazing-events-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}