Markarian's Chain
"Markarian's Chain" is a group of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster that are arranged in a slightly bent curve. The chain takes its name from the
work of "Benjamin Markajan", who observed the group intensively in the 1970s. The galaxies are mostly around 50 million light-years away.
The two brightest galaxies are Messier 84 and Messier 86 with magnitudes of around 9mag. The galaxy NGC 4473 races through the Virgo Cluster
at a speed of 2,200 km/s. The two galaxies NGC 4435/38 are known as Markajan's Eyes.
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In a 20" telescope, you can't get the group into the field of view all at once, not even at the lowest magnification. So the only option is to scan the galaxy
chain. The two huge elliptical galaxies Messier 84/86 are of course particularly impressive, as are the structures in NGC 4438, which has interacted
with Messier 86 and NGC 4435.
Thanks to the large aperture of 50 centimeters, you can not only discover the bright galaxies, but also numerous (sometimes very faint) galaxies with
the help of a star chart. This makes observing this wonderful chain even more fun. :)
For the full resolution of 2000 pixels please click on the drawing!
