Markarian's Chain (Chris Hunt)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com) · Contains: IC 3344 · IC 3355 · IC 3382 · M 86 · NGC 4402 · NGC 4406 · NGC 4425 · NGC 4435 · NGC 4438 · NGC 4446 · NGC 4447 · NGC 4458 · NGC 4459 · NGC 4461 · NGC 4473 · NGC 4477 · NGC 4479 · The Eyes

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Markarian's Chain

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Markarian's Chain

Two questions for you:

1) Ever think that we must be alone in the universe?

2) How many galaxies do you see in this relatively small field of view?

This is Markarian's Chain, named after an Armenia astronomy who discovered that at least seven of these galaxies were moving through space together, gravitationally locked. You can actually see at least 16 galaxies in this image (which isn't even the whole chain), many smaller than our own Milky Way but others closer in size. Some clearly are paired and interacting, at least two (NGC 4438 and NGC 4435) quite violently. Must be somebody out there looking back at me while I look back at them..... In fact, NGC 4428 and NGC4435 are nicknamed "The Eyes" for their appearance when looking through a telescope! So to the probable intergalactic peeping Tom, I wave back at you and hope you have had better weather for star gazing than I have had recently.

Just the absolute worst weather the past month with barely any clear nights. I was able to quickly grab a couple of hours last night. Needs more time for sure and I think different framing next time around, but I will take it after this long photon drought!

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	4461567
PixInsight job	UH6U0VJI02K1ISFHCQ0B1E7TF4TFWLYQ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	12h27m45s.976
RA (top/left)	12h28m21s.670
RA (top/right)	12h24m25s.931
RA (bottom/right)	12h27m10s.476
RA (bottom/left)	12h31m06s.405

Dec (center)	+13°23′56″.49
Dec (top/left)	+14°13′23″.55
Dec (top/right)	+13°11′22″.53
Dec (bottom/right)	+12°34′25″.23
Dec (bottom/left)	+13°36′20″.77

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Markarian's Chain

Markarian's Chain

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Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Markarian's Chain

Markarian's Chain

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