Markarian's chain

[elpajare]

Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It is called "chain" because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line.

Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies, M84 and M86, in the year 1781. The other galaxies seen in the chain are first mentioned in John L. E. Dreyer's New General Catalogue, published in 1888. It was ultimately named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.

This is the part corresponding to Coma Berenices constellation

 

NGC 4477 Y OTRAS / MARKARIANS CHAIN 1 GX/ COMA BERENICES/ EXPO= 17X15" stack/  FWHM=3,7/ ALTIT= 49º/ Moon=0 

Skywatcher /f4 + ATIK Infinity color+ Atik software

[elpajare]

NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 lie in a string of galaxies across the heart of the cluster known as Markarian's Chain. They were nicknamed "The Eyes" by the 19th-century observer L. S. Copeland. This interacting galaxies lie in the heart of the Virgo cluster. If either was a spiral, such structure was disturbed long ago by gravitational forces due to close encounters with other galaxies and with the cluster's heavyweight, M 86.

MESSIER 86 is linked by several filaments of ionized gas to the severely disrupted spiral galaxy NGC 4438 and shows some gas and interstellar dust that may have been stripped, as well as the gas on those filaments, of it. It is suffering ram-pressure stripping as it moves at high speed through Virgo's intracluster medium, losing its interstellar medium as it moves through it leaving behind a very long trail of hot gas (Wikipedia)

 

NGC 4435 Y 4438 / GX / EYES VIRGO / EXPO= 17X15" stack/  FWHM=3,7/ ALTIT= 49º/ Moon=0 

Skywatcher /f4 + ATIK Infinity color+ Atik software

[elpajare]

Messier 84 is located near the border with the constellation Coma Berenices. It can be found halfway along the line from Denebola in Leo to Vindemiatrix in Virgo. Another Messier object, M86, can be seen just 17 arc minutes to the east of M84. The two galaxies appear in the same field of view in binoculars and small telescopes.

In small telescopes, the galaxies appear as small, oval-shaped patches of light with brighter centres. They are best seen in medium-sized and large telescopes. In 8-inch telescopes, several other galaxies can be seen in the vicinity, including NGC 4435, NGC 4388, NGC 4402 and NGC 4438. The giant elliptical galaxy M87 lies about 1.5 degrees to the southeast of M84 and M86

This is the end of Markarian's chain and probably, the most espectacular end possible. 

 

EXPO= 17X15" stack/  FWHM=3,7/ ALTIT= 49º/ Moon=0 

Skywatcher /f4 + ATIK Infinity color+ Atik software

[HiloDon]

Elpajare,

Excellent captures and write up!  One of my favorite parts of the sky.  Here's my attempt last year to view and capture the Chain with my wide angle C6 and Hyperstar at F1.9.  Camera was SX Ultrastar C with Paul's Starlight Live software.

Don

[RobertI]

Nice captures Elpajare, and interesting annotation. Thanks for posting.

[elpajare]

Thanks to all.

Nice capture, Don. Markarian's is a beautiful object and very appropiated to start showing astronomy amateur people what are over there.

[Dave In Vermont]

10 hours ago, elpajare said:

Thanks to all.

Nice capture, Don. Markarian's is a beautiful object and very appropiated to start showing astronomy amateur people what are over there.

Very true! And also a great introduction to but one application of the Universe available to video-astrophotography. Which can greatly appeal to those who'd like to enter the field of Astro-Photography (AP), but are intimidated by the high-costs associated with this endeavour.

Great works to you both!

Dave