Markarian's Chain of Galaxies

[crimbfighter]

Markarian's Chain, imaged from the back yard last night. This is a grouping of galaxies in the constellation Virgo that follow a curved line from our perspective. Markarian's Chain doesn't usually include the galaxy to the far left, but I wanted to include it in the frame because it's quite interesting. This is a two panel mosaic, making for a very high resolution image. Zoom in to see! How many galaxies do you see? There's quite a few.

-Astro-Tech AT130EDT 130mm f/7 telescope with a 0.8x reducer, making it a 728mm focal length, f/5.6 scope.
-ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled camera
-ZWO EAF focuser
-iOptron HAE43 Strain Wave Gear mount
-Optolong L-Pro light polution filter
-Pegasus Astro Mini Powerbox
-Orion 60mm guide scope
-Orion Starshoot autoguider
-Controlled with a MeLE Quieter3Q mini PC running Windows

Software
-Sequence Generator Pro for acquisition
-PixInsight and Photoshop for image processing
-PHD2 guiding software

-25 x 180sec subexposures for each panel
-calibrated with 15 each darks, flats, and dark flats
-Total integration time of 2.5hrs

 

[wobe]

Very impressive, especially as 'imaged from the back yard last night.' !
Thanks again for posting.

 

[Jeff15]

Amazing photography....

 

[14Meadow]

Awesome! It's really hard to imagine just how far and vast it is! The light traveled for millions of years from there.

 

[terri]

Astonishing! I'd love to see a banner-sized shot of this. Just beautiful and thought-provoking.

Excellent work.

 

[PJM]

I feel so small. Very nice capture!

 

[slat]

Excellent as usual.

 

[MitchP]

Amazing work!

 

[crimbfighter]

Very impressive, especially as 'imaged from the back yard last night.' !
Thanks again for posting.

Thanks! It really is amazing what you can see without needing to go to a professional observatory.

Amazing photography....

Thanks!

Awesome! It's really hard to imagine just how far and vast it is! The light traveled for millions of years from there.

I often wonder what it looks like today. Amd to think you couldn't even travel across this picture in your lifetime, at the speed of light

 

[crimbfighter]

Astonishing! I'd love to see a banner-sized shot of this. Just beautiful and thought-provoking.

Excellent work.

Thanks! My wife would kill me if I brought that print home...

I feel so small. Very nice capture!

You and me both!

Excellent as usual.

Thanks!

Amazing work!

Thank you!

 

[jeffashman]

Amazing! And each one of those contains billions of stars. One can only wonder how many have life on them, or are habitable.

 

[crimbfighter]

Amazing! And each one of those contains billions of stars. One can only wonder how many have life on them, or are habitable.

Thanks! It makes me so frustrated we'll never know the answer to that in our lifetime..