Backyard telescope captures The Eyes in Markarian's Chain
Astrophotographer Ronald Brecher captured a striking image of Markarian's Chain—an extended string of galaxies in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster—from his home in Guelph, Canada, using a Skywatcher Esprit 120 and multiple filters to accumulate about 9.5 hours of exposure. The shot highlights the galaxy pair NGC 4438/NGC 4435, nicknamed 'The Eyes', with nearby ellipticals M86 and M84 also visible; Markarian's Chain is a dense segment of the roughly 2,000-member Virgo Cluster. Brecher captured the image between April 17 and 27, and the article explains how to spot Markarian's Chain in spring skies: find Leo's Denebola and Virgo's Vindemiatrix and sweep a 6-inch telescope to the patch between them.