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M 86, 84 & Co - MARKARIAN CHAIN

AKA VIRGO GALAXY CLUSTER

 (Centered at  12.27,44/ dec +12:57)

 

 

 

 Collaboration with Guillermo Baldi AstroHobby

February 2010, La ALDEA Mountain House Complex in Merlo, San Luis, Argentina

 

Main Galaxies Labeled

 


 

DATA

TYPE: Galaxy Cluster

Apparent Magnitude: M86: 8,9 - M84:9.2 - The Eyes: 10.8 & 10 - NGC 4402: 11.8 - NGC 4388: 11

Apparent Diameter: FOV roughly 97 degrees

DISTANCE: 70 million lights years

 

IMAGE INFORMATION

SCOPE: William Optics Zenithstar 66 with WO 0.8 x fr/ff

CAMERA: SXVF H9

GUIDING: Celestron C8 SCT working at f5.1

IMAGE ACQUISITION: AstroArt 3.0 - Control Interface 3.72 plug in

FILTERS: Astronomik Type II - Atik Filter Wheel

SKY CONDITIONS: transparency and seeing: regular

EXPOSURES: LRGB (60,20,20,20)

PROCESSING: Calibration in Images Plus, CCD Sharp (1 RL pass), Photoshop CS2

 

OBJECT DESCRIPTION AND IMAGE SESSION

Virgo offers a stunning vista for telescopes and binoculars. A curved shaped river of Galaxies and countless fuzzies that belongs to the so called Markarian Chain. (Armenian Astrophysicist who studied it by mid 70's). The Virgo Cluster is the nearest galaxy cluster and contains more than 2000 members. It has a noticeable gravitational incidence over our Local Group (*). Unfortunately we were not able to turn the camera some degrees to get the usual frame, so the chain is presented somehow vertical.

 

A great night with my friend Guillermo during our vacation in the mountains. A truly team work. Guillermo helped me selecting the target and setting the SCT for guide star hunting.  We turned down 20 lights of the house complex to get a dark sky. For those hours we had the whole night sky for us...

 

(*) Source SEDS, APOD.

 

 


 

M 86, 84 & Co - MARKARIAN CHAIN

LABELED