Markarian's Chain

This "necklace" of bright galaxies at the heart of Virgo Cluster forms a spectacular view in a 6 inch (or bigger) rich field telescope. It consists of (in WSW to ENE order) M84, M86, NGC4435 & NGC4438, NGC4458 and NGC4461, NGC4473 and NGC4477 (see detailed chart below). A number of other galaxies, including NGC4388, NGC4402 and NGC4425, are scaterred in the same field of view.

The above mosaic is composed of eight "tiles", each assembled from 12 - 15 white exposures ( 60 sec. each) taken on May 7, 2002 from Harrowsmith, Ontario with Cookbook 245 LDC CCD camera and Celestron Ultima 8 f3.0 telescope. Individual tiles were processed in AIP4WIN and mosaic was assembled in Corel PhotoPaint 8.

The above mosaic is reduced in size to 50% of the original. North is up.

Map created in Guide 7.0 - 2° x 3°. North is up.

Virgo Page

Virgo Cluster Page

Large CCD Mosaics

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© Jan Wisniewski