Tag: Virgo

Markarians’s Chain

Shot photos from the driveway again last night. Several hours shooing at the heart of the Virgo cluster and Markarian’s Chain.

I was shooting color data, but clouds rolled through the field before I got any blue data. Will have to shoot again another evening. In the meantime I put together a monochrome version.

The two big elliptical galaxies towards the lower right are M84 and M86. In the center is an interacting spiral galaxy NGC4438, notably distorted through interaction with NGC4435 seen right above it. The big elliptical at lower left is M87.

Do not try to count the number of galaxies here, zoom in and dozens upon dozens become visible.

The heart of the Virgo Cluster around Markarian's Chain.
The heart of the Virgo Cluster around Markarian’s Chain.

Postcard from the Universe – Markarian’s Chain

The center of Virgo is thick with galaxies. The nearest large super-cluster of galaxies lies a mere 53 million lightyears away, includes upwards of 1300 member galaxies and spans over 8° on the sky. The center of the Virgo Cluster is marked by the large elliptical galaxies M84, M86 and M87.

Markarian’s Chain is the long sweep of galaxies stretching from the M84 and M86 pair at the lower right to NGC4477 at the upper left.

Markarian's Chain
The galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, including M84, M86 and M87, Canon 6D and TV-76mm, 10x240s+10x60s+10x15s