Markarian’s Chain consists of a line of several galaxies that curves north and east from M84 and M86. It extends well over 1 degree and reaches NGC4477 galaxy in Coma Berenices. Galaxies of Markarian’s Chain are members of the Virgo cluster.
The most prominent galaxies in this group are M84 and M86 – a pair of giant elliptical galaxies separated by about 17 arc minutes. The next two links in this chain are NGC4435 and 4438. This pair is cataloged as Arp 120 and is also called “The Eyes” – a fascinating object to visual observations with larger telescopes or imaging with high-resolution setups.
Markarian’s Chain is named after the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, however, the honor of discovery goes to Charles Messier (for M84 and M86) and William Herschell for the rest of the chain’s members a few years later.
The dominant galaxy in this sky region is Messier 87, also known as Virgo A – the supergiant elliptical galaxy. M87 does not belong to Markarian’s Chain, but it was captured in the image above as well. Virgo A is a prominent radio source, and the suggested cause of the strong radio emission of M87 is the relativistic jet that extends from the galaxy core to an angular distance of 20 arc seconds. This feature is quite small but relatively bright, so it is possible to capture M87 jest even with a small refractor.
Markarian’s Chain of galaxies and Messier 87 galaxy are members of the Virgo cluster. This cluster contains approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) galaxies and is located about 54 million light-years from us (the cluster center). 6 inches diameter telescope under the dark sky will reveal about 150 cluster galaxies. Virgo cluster’s brightest member is the elliptical galaxy M49.
Image technical data: Date: March 2023 Location: Nieborowice, Poland Telescope: TecnoSky 90/540 Owl triplet Corrector: TS FF/FR 0.8x Camera: QHY268M Mount: EQ6 Guiding: ASI290MM + Evoguide ED50 Exposure: 170x2 minutes with luminance filter Conditions: Bortle 6, transparency good, seeing medium
