The western end of Markarian’s Chain (Prabhakaran)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Virgo (Vir) · Contains: IC 3303 · IC 3355 · M 84 · M 86 · NGC 4374 · NGC 4387 · NGC 4388 · NGC 4402 · NGC 4406 · NGC 4407 · NGC 4413 · NGC 4425 · NGC 4435 · NGC 4438 · The Eyes

Powered byPixInsight

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

Powered byPixInsight

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

At the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a remarkable lineup of galaxies called Markarian’s Chain. This image captures the western end of the chain and features the two large, bright lenticular galaxies, M84 and M86. To the upper left is a pair of interacting galaxies known as The Eyes: NGC 4435 (top) and NGC 4438 (bottom). Dozens of smaller, fainter galaxies are also captured in this vista covering an area of the sky about twice the size of a full moon. The Virgo Cluster contains over 2,000 galaxies and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The center of the Virgo Cluster is located about 70 million light-years away towards the constellation of Virgo. At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4539049
PixInsight job	OJIHJQM5B870BFR2G67QWRJT79WJWISB
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h26m32s.732
RA (top/left)	12h28m03s.886
RA (top/right)	12h24m31s.298
RA (bottom/right)	12h25m01s.879
RA (bottom/left)	12h28m33s.910

Dec (center)	+12°53′58″.45
Dec (top/left)	+13°18′34″.80
Dec (top/right)	+13°08′53″.74
Dec (bottom/right)	+12°29′20″.73
Dec (bottom/left)	+12°38′59″.99

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

The western end of Markarian’s Chain

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information