Markarian's Chain

Sketch of Markarian's Chain in the Virgo Cluster

Move mouse over image to view labels (magnitudes listed in parentheses)
Click for larger version.

Observation Notes:

The heart of the Virgo Cluster is a wonderful place to visit from a dark site. Every nudge of the telescope brings another galaxy...or three or five into the eyepiece...and it's hard to beat the density around Markarian's Chain.

In preparation for a tour of the area, I printed a chart and pre-traced 31 of the brightest stars to serve as a multi-field framework on a 9" x 12" sketch sheet. This saved a lot of sketching frustration as I panned across the 2.5° x 4° field. Over the course of the three hour observation, I ended up with 27 galaxies from 8.8 magnitude Messier 87 to 13.1 magnitude IC 3258. Most were quick catches, but a few required some star chart scrutiny to locate.

The list of galaxies observed:

• Messier 84 (vMag 9.4)
• Messier 86 (vMag 9.0)
• Messier 87 (vMag 8.8)
• Messier 88 (vMag 9.7)
• NGC 4351 (vMag 12.3)
• NGC 4377 (vMag 11.9)
• NGC 4387 (vMag 12.1)
• NGC 4388 (vMag 11.3)
• NGC 4402 (vMag 12.2)
• NGC 4413 (vMag 12.3)
• NGC 4425 (vMag 11.8)
• NGC 4431 (vMag 12.9)
• NGC 4435 (vMag 10.8)
• NGC 4438 (vMag 10.0)
• NGC 4440 (vMag 12.1)
• NGC 4458 (vMag 12.1)
• NGC 4459 (vMag 10.4)
• NGC 4461 (vMag 11.1)
• NGC 4468 (vMag 13.0)
• NGC 4473 (vMag 10.1)
• NGC 4474 (vMag 11.8)
• NGC 4476 (vMag 12.1)
• NGC 4477 (vMag 10.4)
• NGC 4478 (vMag 11.3)
• NGC 4479 (vMag 12.6)
• NGC 4506 (vMag 12.9)
• IC 3258 (vMag 13.1)

Each of these galaxies is worth its own dedicated observation and sketch, but I wanted this to be more about the swarm than the individuals. Fortunately, the full page size of the sketch allowed some leeway for conveying a little detail in most of the galaxies--particularly Messier 88 and NGC 4438. As David Moody often advises, don't let your eyepiece field stop dictate the extent of your sketch. It's good advice.