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
Armenianastrophysicist,
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] 
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