Object: The Virgo Galaxy Cluster in Virgo
Exposure: Composite of three 60-minute exposures
Processing: Negatives scanned at 3048dpi with a UMAX Powerlook 3000 scanner, blended in Picture Window Pro 2.5 and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop 4.0
Telescope: TeleVue 85mm f/7 APO refractor @ f/7.8
Mount: Losmandy G11
Guiding: SBIG ST-4
Film: gas-hypered 35mm Kodak Ektapress PJ400
Location: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California
Date: 4/1/00
Comments: The image seen here is centered on the bright elliptical galaxies M86 and M84, respectively. The line of galaxies extending off to the upper left(NE in image) is commonly know as Markarian's Chain. The brighter galaxies included in the chain include NGC 4438, 35, 61, 73, 77 and 59. The spiral and lenticular galaxies NGC 4305 and 4306 can be seen on the far right of the image while M87 can be found in the extreme lower left corner.
While taken on a sub-par night with a lot of high level atmospheric dust, the faintest galaxy recorded and found during close inspection of the full res(3048dpi) scan is the .3'x.1' elliptical VCC800 at magnitude 18.5. An extreme close-up of the region surrounding VCC800 can be found here.
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© Chris Cook 2000