www.davidpaulgreen.com/tumol.html has some nice software for this challenge, as well as a printable (206 page) Ultimate Messier Object Log, which includes notes, difficulty scales, starmaps and photos of the objects.

Cheers,
~Al

I use this software and I can heartily recommend it. It's well laid out, fairly user friendly and intuitive and a great way to record your Messier finds. He's working on one for the Caldwell list too, but it's not quite finished yet

Has anybody out there got any experience of running the Messier Marathon, whether successfully or not? Is it a worthwhile exercise? I find it an interesting idea, but I've often wondered about what the real purpose behind it is. Is it to log objects, or just practise using a scope and tracking down faint fuzzies?