Astrophotos

Location: Mount Pinos, CA
Date: March 28, 2003
Subject: Markarian's Chain in Virgo
Exposure: Three 45-min. exposures adjusted in Adobe Photoshop
Telescope: Borg 100ED @ f/6.6
Mount: Losmandy GM-8
Guiding: ST-4 autoguider
Film: Fuji Super HQ 100
Comments: Terrible night for photography. Lots of high cirrus and gusty winds. This shot is one of the better ones. Markarian's chain is a portion of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The two large elliptical galaxies below and to the right of center are M84 and M86. M87 is the elliptical galaxy near the bottom towards the left. I have counted at least 43 galaxies in the above image, how many can you see? The full res scan contains at least 120-130 galaxies with the faintest found to date being PGC 169437 at Mag 18.8. The biggest galaxies in the image are bright and easily visible through small scopes. The entire region is spectacular though a large scope and a wide-field eyepiece. One can easily get lost in the swarm of galaxies that fill this area of the sky.