This image may not be that interesting to some people, as the galaxies from the Virgo cluster can only be seen relatively small at 400mm focal length, but among them are the well-known Messier objects M98, M99 and M100.
The Virgo Cluster is a galaxy cluster with at least 1300, but probably more than 2000 galaxies. It lies in the direction of the constellation Virgo. Its center is about 54 million light-years away from the Milky Way. In total, the Messier catalog contains 16 galaxies that are now identified as members of the Virgo Cluster: M49, M58, M59, M60, M61, M84, M85, M86, M87, M88, M89, M90, M91, M98, M99, and M100.
Vista into the Virgo Cluster was taken rather accidentally, since I had spontaneously discarded my original imaging plan and had not prepared an alternative. Well, obviously I wanted to point my telephoto lens somewhere in the night sky of
La Palma! Of course, it's not a good idea to go into the wilderness without preparation (as a result, I was not so happy with the framing the next day.... precisely, the next afternoon
).
I thought for a while whether I should publish the image. Essentially,
@Gary Imm's fine galaxies series (e.g. his recent Hickson collection, to name just one) finally motivated me to do it. Gary's appreciation for the finest details in even the smallest objects seems to have jumped over to me. That is why I am also now satisfied with the small fish in the net.
Vista into the Virgo Cluster already allows the observation of quite a few details in the galaxies M98, M99, M100, NGC4298, NGC4302, and even NGC4312.
Special thanks to
@Uwe Deutermann, who gave me helpful advice on how to aesthetically display an enlarged image portion as a mouseover (original idea from... Gary Imm). I tried my best.
For those of you who have made it this far, thank you for reading!
To all others as always thank you for watching and/or leaving a comment.
Stay well!
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