Markarian's Chain in Virgo Cluster of Galaxies
Markarian's Chain in Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. Just as galaxies are communities of hundreds of billions of stars, Unimaginably large clusters of galaxies exist containing thousands of them. The Virgo Galaxy Cluster is one such cluster. Within this galaxy cluster is an smaller grouping we call Markarian's Chain. It has the shape almost of a ball and chain. The field of view of larger aperture telescopes are not wide enough to fit in the galaxies that comprise both the "ball" and the "chain" in that shape. So, this image is only wide enough to contain the "ball", or the grouping of galaxies that are distributed in a round fashion. While 10 to 12 galaxies in this image may be readily seen, others are smaller and fainter appearing. In fact, a careful eye, and a magnified view, can find more than 20 galaxies. Look for small elongated smudges that are not round and crisp like stars are. And don't forget the tiny, distant galaxy hiding behind the "halo" of the bright M86 galaxy. Three of the galaxies can be found along the bottom of the image near the center of the picture's border.
This image is the result of one and a half hours of 5 minute exposures on the Ritchey-Chretien 6 inch telescope with a Canon T7i DSLR at the prime focus. The exposures were all 300 seconds at ISO 800. The auto guiding work was done with a Skywatcher 50ED Evoguide guide scope and a ZWO ASI183MC camera connected to PHD2 auto-guiding software. Polar alignment was done with Sharpcap Pro software. Note: The thin straight line through the image was made by a satellite passing overhead during one of the frames.
Markarian's Chain in Virgo Cluster of Galaxies
Markarian's Chain in Virgo Cluster of Galaxies. Just as galaxies are communities of hundreds of billions of stars, Unimaginably large clusters of galaxies exist containing thousands of them. The Virgo Galaxy Cluster is one such cluster. Within this galaxy cluster is an smaller grouping we call Markarian's Chain. It has the shape almost of a ball and chain. The field of view of larger aperture telescopes are not wide enough to fit in the galaxies that comprise both the "ball" and the "chain" in that shape. So, this image is only wide enough to contain the "ball", or the grouping of galaxies that are distributed in a round fashion. While 10 to 12 galaxies in this image may be readily seen, others are smaller and fainter appearing. In fact, a careful eye, and a magnified view, can find more than 20 galaxies. Look for small elongated smudges that are not round and crisp like stars are. And don't forget the tiny, distant galaxy hiding behind the "halo" of the bright M86 galaxy. Three of the galaxies can be found along the bottom of the image near the center of the picture's border.
This image is the result of one and a half hours of 5 minute exposures on the Ritchey-Chretien 6 inch telescope with a Canon T7i DSLR at the prime focus. The exposures were all 300 seconds at ISO 800. The auto guiding work was done with a Skywatcher 50ED Evoguide guide scope and a ZWO ASI183MC camera connected to PHD2 auto-guiding software. Polar alignment was done with Sharpcap Pro software. Note: The thin straight line through the image was made by a satellite passing overhead during one of the frames.