Markarian's Chain is a striking string of roughly eight galaxies stretching across the boundary between Virgo and Coma Berenices, forming part of the core of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large galaxy cluster to the Milky Way, at a distance of around 50-60 million light-years.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
Markarian's Chain is a striking string of roughly eight galaxies stretching across the boundary between Virgo and Coma Berenices, forming part of the core of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest large galaxy cluster to the Milky Way, at a distance of around 50-60 million light-years. The cluster itself contains up to about 2,000 member galaxies and exerts a measurable gravitational pull on our own Local Group. Among the chain's most notable members are NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, nicknamed “The Eyes” for their paired, elongated appearance; the two collided at high speed roughly 100 million years ago, an encounter that stripped gas from NGC 4438 and seeded a bridge of newborn stars between them. The chain's tight grouping of galaxies makes it an excellent wide-field target for capturing several distinct galaxies in a single frame.
[Source: general astronomical references, incl. constellation-guide.com “Eyes Galaxies” and messier-objects.com “Markarian's Chain”]
Annotated Image
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Sky Location
The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.
Image Details
| Moon Phase: | Waxing Crescent |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Date: | 2026-04-22 |
| Number of images: | 21 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
| Total imaging time: | 3 h 30 min |
PixInsight Processing
- Image Integration (x3)
- Drizzle Integration
- Background Neutralization
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- Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
- NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise) (x2)
- Multiscale Adaptive Stretch
- Curves Transformation
- HDR Multiscale Transform
