NGC 4438 and its interacting companion NGC 4435 are often called "The Eyes". A voracious black hole is at the center of 4438 Which is quite bright. Hubble shots show it blowing matter both above and below, though the resolution required to see them exceeds this image. Given the brightness of this region I suspect a lucky-imaging approach might show hints of these red loops in the core. See here for Hubble images:
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2000/21/969-Image.htmlThe core of 4435 is possibly even brighter and is thought to be experiencing a starburst phase due to interaction with 4438.
But M86 seems to be the boss of the region. A diffust eliptical or lenticular galaxy, is is linked to 4438 by several filaments of gas. In addtion there are other stellar streams thought to be remnants of dwarf galaxies.
I shot some Ha that wasn't used in this mix. However and extreme stretch of the M86 Ha data shows a very subtle bowed area at about the 10 o'clock position. I'm curious if this is related to interaction with 4438 since it seems centered on a line between the two.
In processing I used the Pixinsight EZ Decon and found it quite effective and efficient. I used Topaz Severe Noise AI for noise reduction. Color data was stretched in PI using ArcSinh stretch. Otherwise post-processing was done in Photoshop. I used Russell Croman's GradientXterminator to flatten the color gradients and StarXterminator to produce my star mask.
As is often the case with Winter data, capture for this started last year. I needed some more color data to remove gradients and the few morning hours this is now up did the trick.
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