Last night and early morning was the last clear sky for a few days, and I wanted to try and get more time on SH2-209. After SH2-209 fell below my line of sight I thought why not try Markarians chain and I planed to spend almost 3 hours on it, but by 02:00 I was fading fast and it was cold so I packed it in the garage. After processing I wished I had found the energy to image until about 05:00 for I think this image would have turned out much better. But I think the result is Ok.
Markarian's Chain is a stretch of
galaxies that forms part of the
Virgo Cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line.
Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies,
M84 and
M86, in 1781. The other galaxies seen in the chain were discovered by
William Herschel[1] and are now known primarily by their catalog numbers in
John Louis Emil Dreyer's
New General Catalogue, published in 1888.
[2] It was ultimately named after the
Sovietastrophysicist,
Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.
[3] Member galaxies include
M84 (
NGC 4374),
M86 (
NGC 4406),
NGC 4477,
NGC 4473,
NGC 4461,
NGC 4458,
NGC 4438 and
NGC 4435. It is located at RA 12h 27m and Dec +13° 10′.The bright members of the chain are visible through
small telescopes.
Larger telescopes can be used to view the fainter galaxies .
[2] Near the center there appear the pair of interacting galaxies NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, about 50 million light-years away, known to some as
Markarian's Eyes.At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.
[4] Six of the points on the chain can be marked by galaxies. The other two points are pairs of galaxies.
[5]References:- "NGC 204000-204999". Adventures in Deep Space. 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2023-01-14.
- French, Sue (2004). "Deep-Sky Wonders: Markarian's Chain". Sky & Telescope. 107 (5): 88–91.
- Markarian, B.E. (1961). "Physical chain of galaxies in the Virgo cluster and its dynamic instability". Astronomical Journal. 66: 555–557. Bibcode:1961AJ.....66..555M.
- Litzroth, E. (1983). "The Markarian chain of galaxies in the constellation Virgo". Astronomische Nachrichten. 304 (2): 69–72. Bibcode:1983AN....304...69L. doi:10.1002/asna.2113040204. ISSN0004-6337.
- Meurers, J. (1977). "Markarian's Chain of Galaxies in Virgo". Astronomische Nachrichten. 298 (2): 103–106. Bibcode:1977AN....298..103M. doi:10.1002/asna.19772980206.
@Information from Wikipedia
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