Markarian’s Chain
Between 50-55 million light-years away in the Virgo constellation, you’ll find a group of galaxies with common motion, colloquially known as Markarian’s Chain. Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. You’ll also see dozens of smaller, more distant galaxies in this image. See if you can count them all!
April 17, 2024
Last night I was able to spend a good amount of time imaging the region in the Virgo Constellation known as Markarian’s Chain. Like my post with M106 and friends, one plus to having a wide-field scope is you can see the cosmic neighborhood of just about any object, and capturing all of Markarian’s Chain certainly seems to require a relatively wide field! There are other galaxies in this region that might be served by a mosaic type image, but for now, we’ve got the core part of Markarian’s Chain. As mentioned above, member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, though there's dozens of other galaxies in this image that are smaller and fainter.
Technical Details
Imaging Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 II
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filter: Antlia Tri-band RGB Ultra Filter - 2” Mounted
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO Filter Drawer (Gen 2)
Software: Siril, Starnet, Photoshop, NoiseXterminator
Guiding Telescope: William Optics UniGuide 32
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Imaging Dates: Apr. 16, 2024
Frames (gain 101.0) f/4.9 -10c: 80x180” (4h)
Integration Time: 4h
Darks/Flats/Dark Flats: 30/25/30
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00