Markarians Chain

Galaxy Cluster in the Constellation Virgo

Higher resolution, 2000-pixel version of image can be seen here.
(The image above will look best on screens of at least 1280 horizontal pixels or greater).

Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It is called a chain because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.  Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. It's located at RA 12^h 27^m and Dec +13° 10′.

At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.

Image Information  Courtesy of Wikipedia, Kitt Peak NOAO,  and SEDS

Image Details:

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  • Instrument:  Stellarvue SV130EDT Triplet Apo Refractor with Teleskop Service TS25 field flattener, at native f/7, focal length of 910mm
    Mount:  AP1200GTOCP3
  • Image Scale:  5.40 arc-seconds per pixel after processing (on 1500-pixel version of image)
    Camera: SBIG STL-11000M CCD cameras with integrated SBIG filter carousel and Astrodon I-Series LRGB filters 
    Filters & Exposure Times:
    • L:  14 x 10 minutes binned 1 x 1
    • R:    9 x 10 minutes binned 2 x 2
      G:    6 x 10 minutes binned 2 x 2
      B:    6 x 10 minutes binned 2 x 2
    • Total equivalent unbinned exposure time of 9.3 hours
    
    Capture Software: Maxim DL/CCD
    Processing Software and Steps, in order:
    PixInsight:  Image Alignment and Integratiion, Calibration, Stacking, DBE, Color Calibration, SCNR, Histogram adjustments, HDR Wavelets, ACDNR,  Saturation Boost with Curves (all done on RGB master file, then all steps repeated except color steps on LUM master file separately).  LRGB combine, Dynamic Crop.

    Adobe Photoshop CS2 on master LRGB combined file:  Levels, Curves tweaking, Gradient X-Terminator, Layers with Color Range tool to select zonal areas of image to selectively sharpen galaxy structure or Gaussian Blur color  background noise, Color Noise tool for final color noise reduction, in different zones of the image, again working in Layers. 

    Location:  C.A.A.S. East Observatory, Little Rock, AR., El. 650ft
    Capture Dates: April 12th-15th, 2013

Wade Van Arsdale
Little Rock, AR., USA
August 17th, 2013