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Marcus Davies (marc4darkskies) | all galleries >> bellsobservatory >> photography >> Galaxies and Clusters > Deep Virgo Cluster: M84, M86, M87 et al.
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10-APR-2011 Marcus Davies

Deep Virgo Cluster: M84, M86, M87 et al.

The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is approximately 55 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. The whole cluster (of which this image shows a small part) comprises around 1500 galaxies.

This deep image is dominated by several giant eliptical galaxies, M84, M86 and M87. There are many other NGC galaxies in the field as well with NGCs 4438, 4388, 4432, 4402, 4387, 4435, and 4407 being the brightest ones visible. A close inspection will also reveal a myriad fainter galaxies as well.

Look closely at the very core of M87 (right of frame) and you will see the brightest portion of the jet of matter emanating from a supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy (at the 9 o'clock position from the bright star-like core).

Viewing in a dark room (and using the F11 key to remove the menu bar), you may also see very faint wisps and mottling in places. These features are real and are actually faint galaxies or streams of stars between and around some of the galaxies of the cluster.

The faintest object I've been able to discern is mag 22.9 (with the help of a faint object chart).

This is a 8.75 hr L(Ls)RGB image (165, (120), 120, 120, 120 mins). LRGB subs were all 15 mins unbinned.
FOV is 1.81 x 1.15 deg @ 1.69 arcsec/pixel.

Takahashi TOA-150 refractor @ F7.3 (FL=1095mm) on a Paramount ME with SBIG STL 11000M camera. full exif


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