Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  13.91  ·  740 Cantabia  ·  IC 3258  ·  IC 3280  ·  IC 3303  ·  IC 3311  ·  IC 3344  ·  IC 3349  ·  IC 3355  ·  IC 3363  ·  IC 3381  ·  IC 3382  ·  IC 3388  ·  IC 3392  ·  IC 3393  ·  IC 3409  ·  IC 3413  ·  IC 3418  ·  IC 3432  ·  IC 3437  ·  IC 3442  ·  IC 3443  ·  IC 3446  ·  IC 3457  ·  IC 3459  ·  IC 3461  ·  IC 3470  ·  IC 3475  ·  IC 3476  ·  IC 3478  ·  And 86 more.
The Markarian's Chain & companions, Christophe Perroud

The Markarian's Chain & companions

The Markarian's Chain & companions, Christophe Perroud

The Markarian's Chain & companions

Equipment

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Description

Hi folks,

This is my second attempt with my newly Nikon modded by JTW Astronomy. Thanks to clear nights late May, I was able to collect about 4 hours of data somewhere in Virgo, centered on a very rich field populated by great Messier objects and other DSOs that have been catalogued later under NGC and IC denomination. I found interesting to make annotation directly on my image while sharing it with friends that aren’t too familiar with named « places » in space. I’ve kept it also like that for publishing here on AB, if you don’t mind ;-)

I’m very pleased with the final result as there are some nice features in many tiny galaxies to look at, considering the small aperture of the FS-60CB. My favorites are M88, M90 and NGC4567 & 4568, known as Butterfly Galaxies or Siamiese Twins. I have also the Markarian’s Chain in my to-do-list for a long time, so I’m really happy I could catch this nice alignement this year! Most of those DSOs are between 35 and 70 millions ly away. The post processing was bit harder on chromatic fringes due to the doublet comparing with to my 120mm triplet apo I’ve used for M81 & M82, but playing with StarMask and CurveTransformation make magic happen.

I shot over two night from my balcony to be protected from wind blastes…but had to deal with my beloved street lamps a few meters away, still fully functional during night as there is no need at all to let them lighting up the ground and part of the sky (my village has around 1’000 inhabitants, going to bed early like brave Swiss people do ;-)))). I should talk with local authorities about that matter once…(the light not the sleeping time…).

Well, hope you’ll enjoy my last image and comments, criticism and thumbs up are welcome ;-)

Stay well and clear skies!

Christophe

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The Markarian's Chain & companions, Christophe Perroud