grand design

"When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time." -Haile Gebrselassie Welcome to a very special Messier Monday, which just happens to be the twenty-first consecutive week we've taken a look at one of the 110 fixed, deep-sky objects that Messier and his collaborators catalogued to avoid confusion with comets. Image credit: Tenho Tuomi, of his completed Messier Marathon. Today's Messier Monday is very special, because today is the new Moon closest to the vernal equinox. Each year, on (or very close to) the vernal equinox --…