Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  13.56  ·  20 Vir  ·  HD105163  ·  HD105262  ·  HD105304  ·  HD105321  ·  HD105408  ·  HD105461  ·  HD105635  ·  HD105681  ·  HD105700  ·  HD105724  ·  HD105725  ·  HD105741  ·  HD105793  ·  HD105845  ·  HD106073  ·  HD106074  ·  HD106089  ·  HD106186  ·  HD106265  ·  HD106280  ·  HD106294  ·  HD106349  ·  HD106400  ·  HD106495  ·  HD106511  ·  HD106526  ·  HD106542  ·  HD106543  ·  And 1074 more.
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Markarian's Chain #5, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

Markarian's Chain #5

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Markarian's Chain #5, Molly Wakeling
Powered byPixInsight

Markarian's Chain #5

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

My first deep-sky photo from the dark-sky land I co-own in Arizona, which we've named Semper Tenebris...Markarian's Chain! I just brought out my Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer star tracker, my Rokinon 135mm f/2 camera lens, and my ZWO ASI294MC Pro, run on my tablet off portable batteries.

There aren't a lot of wide-field targets in the springtime when galaxy season is in full swing -- the summertime Milky Way isn't up until the wee hours, but the wintertime Milky Way sets shortly after sunset. We have a clear view out of the galactic plane out into the universe...which is brimming with galaxies! This area of the sky in the constellation Virgo is chock-full of them. 

The chain itself is the curved line of galaxies that ends in the center group, but there are dozens of other galaxies visible around the image. The two biggest ones there in the center are M84 and M86, which are 66 and 57 million lightyears away, respectively. There are some little fuzzy dots in here that are hundreds of millions of lightyears away! The field of view of this image is about 5 degrees, which is about the width of three fingers side-by-side held at arms length.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Markarian's Chain #5, Molly Wakeling

In these public groups

Women Astrophotographers