North is to the top.
Across the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. The chain, pictured above, is highlighted on the upper right with two large but featureless lenticular galaxies, M84 and M86. Prominent to their lower left is a pair of interacting galaxies known as The Eyes. The home Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. The center of the Virgo Cluster is located about 70 million light years away toward the constellation of Virgo. At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.
Source: NASA APOD
Taken from 2/7/2013 to 3/14/2013 in Chino Valley, AZ
Takahashi FSQ–106ED w/ an SBIG STF–8300 camera using Baader filters
Exposure Details
Lum 430.0 min. (43 x 10 min.)
Red 161.0 min. (23 x 420 sec.)
Green 193.2 min. (23 x 504 sec.)
Blue 230.0 min. (23 x 600 sec.)
For more info see...
http://bf-astro.com/markariansChain/markariansChain.htm