Markarians Chain

[Torazz]

In the middle of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian’s Chain. The chain, is highlighted on the bottom left with two large but featureless lenticular galaxies, M84 and M86. Above them just left of centre is a pair of interacting galaxies known as The Eyes. The Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, and contains over 2000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The center of the Virgo Cluster is located about 70 million light years away toward the constellation of Virgo. At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move together, although others appear to be superposed by chance.
Of particular note from my light polluted garden is bottom right NGC 4446 and NGC 4447, which are at at staggering 352 and 348 million light years distance respectively.
The annotated image shows the major galaxies present.

Esprit 100ED PRO on EQ6-R PRO
170 x 75 secs Lights unguided

MasterBias, MasterDark and MasterFlat

All edited in Pixinsight

From my light polluted garden, need a dark sky site next winter.

[MarsG76]

Now that is some truly DEEP sky imaging...