Messier Marathon Astronomy Activity

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Apr 27

2018

by LI, Chunyu

April 14, 2018/Beijing, China/ Reported by Sharon XIAO Haiying

HaoMiao Astronomy Club hosted a Messier Marathon Astronomy Activity during the 3rd weekend of April for their members. Total 35 participants have been involved in this function from the beginning to the end, they were club members (primary school students), their families & their leading teachers.

Before the function commence, all members were trained by both of DC shooting skill and astronomy basic theories like what was the nebula, galaxy, and Messier Objects (MO) etc. as part of preparation.

The observation place was located 80km away from the CBD of Beijing City. The sky was cleared after whole windy day on Saturday night of 14 April, more than 12 telescopes were set-up for the moments.

People were excited when they found any of Messier celestial body in their eyepiece, especially for the kids, they were recording and drawing while done their MO observation. Each kid caught about 20 MOs (eg. M31, M45, M42, M35~M38, M81, M82, M51, M13, M27...) averagely by the end which were assisting by their leading trainers at that starry night.

They also found the most famous gas giant - Jupiter rose in the east and set in the west by taking an overnight.

What a lovely astronomy discovery night for our star lovers! Everybody who had attended this activity did have a lot of fun there.