Markarian's Chain forms part of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo.

• Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
• Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
• Autoguiding: Yes
• Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
• Camera: Canon 60Da
• Light Frames: 14, 300-s subframes stacked (70 min.)
• Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
• Exposure Time(s): 70 min. (14 x 5 min.)
• ISO: 800
• Processing: Photoshop CC
• Imaging Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains (Altitude: 8,600 ft)

Each spring the constellation Virgo rules the nighttime sky, where a telescope can find dozens of galaxies vying for attention among the stars. This image reveals part of a galaxy cluster in Virgo called Markarian’s Chain, named after the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian.

Markarian’s Chain features a veritable zoo of galaxy types that includes elliptical, lenticular, and spiral. Many of the galaxies of Markarian’s Chain are also gravitationally attracted to each other and move together through space.

The Virgo Cluster is the closest group of galaxies to our own Milky Way and contains upwards of 2,000 galaxies. The galaxies in this image range between 46 million and 126 million light-years from Earth.

[For Ron, whose heart and soul will forever belong to the cosmos.]