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Messier Marathon – 2026
March 21 @ 5:00 pm – March 22 @ 8:00 am
The year 2026’s Messier Marathon was organised at the usual destination, Pragteshwar Mahadev Temple some 40 kms from Rajkot on Rajkot-Kalawad Highway. This allows us to skip the light pollution dome of Rajkot city while still close enough to complete the commute under 1 hour.
It started with an unusually clouded weather and we didn’t have any hopes with it. The cloud cover was forecast for most of the night. But luckily, we had clear patches at the right moments like clearing up right when evening rush started or during Virgo sequence or during early morning rush in Sagittarius or Capricorn. This played right into the favour of couple of our teams.
It was the club’s 20th Messier Marathon and here are the team scores:
- Neelesh I. Rana and Shaurya N. Rana — 110 of 110
- Mayank Raichura and Deeva Raichura — 110 of 110
- Ritik Mehta, Shaktiraj Jadeja, Vansh Chauhan, and Shivam Agraval — 96 of 110
- Bhautik Mali and Yatharth Tank — 95 of 110
- Parth Vasdewani, Dhruv Chauhan, and Diya Satasiya — 71 of 110
- Vidhi Pobaru and Mahi Kotak — 40 of 110
The team members Shaurya N. Rana (15) and Deeva M. Raichura (14) are the youngest amateurs in India and probably in the world having observed 110 Messier objects. This is a huge feat for the members and for the club overall. Kudos to them.
As usual, the team results were submitted to SEDS and the both teams were inducted into SEDS’ Messier Marathon Eternal Hall Of Fame.
