Markarian’s chain
I have been subscribing to data from the Deep Sky West (DSW) Observatory for some time. DSW is located in New Mexico and offers several fully equipped systems. One of the data sets I received, was data from the galaxy group Markarian’s chain, located in the constellation Virgo.
Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435.
The images were taken with the following equipment:
| Location | Rowe, New Mexico |
| Telescope | Astrophysics RH305 |
| Focal length [mm] | 1159 |
| Focal ratio | 3.8 |
| Mount | Paramount ME |
| Camera | SBIG STX-16803 |
| Filter | L:R:G:B |
| Exposure time [min] | 180:230:180:220 |
| Resolution | 1.66″/px |
Data calibration and registration and the final processing was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows:
The faintest star in this image has an apparent magnitude of 22.6 magv (SDSS DR15).
The three highest redshift quasars [Flesh 2015] in the image are:
SDSS J122602.10+132114.5 z=3.53 magG=18.2 (Gaia DR2)
SDSS J122811.68+124913.1 z=3.54 magG=20.7 (Gaia DR2)
SDSS J122514.66+134523.4 z=3.52 magG=20.3 (Gaia DR2)
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