Running Messier's Marathon.

Gripped by an astronomical spring fever, many northern hemisphere stargazers embark on a Messier Marathon . Completing the marathon requires viewing all 110 objects in 18th century French astronomer Charles Messier's catalog in one glorious dusk-to-dawn observing run. As daunting as it sounds, there are often favorable weekend dates for completing the task that fall on nearly moonless nights near the March equinox . This colorful, six hour long time exposure of a group dedicated to running this year's Messier marathon includes celestial star trails along with terrestrial lighting trails from about 200 amateur astronomers . It was recorded from the isolated, ancient Bahram Palace in northern Iran's Kavir National Park . Astronomer and former Messier Marathon organizer for the ASIAC Babak Tafreshi offers this intriguing time-lapse movie ( 2MB wmv file ) of the event.