This session may look a bit dull and unimpressive, but it impresses me! It 's a target well past the limit of what my telescope is good for, but the chain of galaxies is clear.

This is Markarian's Chain. Technically, the chain is part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and these galaxies are "interacting", meaning that the gravitational pull of every galaxy in the cluster (and therefore the Chain) is affecting the movement of every other galaxy in the group. It's not clear exactly what galaxies are in the chain, but some have had their movement measured by Benjamin Markarian (an Armenian astronomer) and are proven members of the chain. There are other suspects, and 2 galaxies at the center appear to be interacting physically; these are NGC 4438 and NGC 4435.

Two major members, M84 and M86 are off the bottom of the picture - the size of the chain is larger than the viewing frame of my camera. I've included an additional annotated image to show the galaxies I see as members of the chain.

Visually, the chain is much longer. This is purely personal and aesthetic, but there it is! I anchored my frame for the session with M88 ate the top and fitted in whatever I could. A camera rotator on my kit would have helped here. A larger aperture telescope would have shown how impressive this chain really is.

Markarian's Chain is in Virgo, often seen as a quiet, uncrowded chunk of sky. Because it looks aways from the bright lights of the Milky Way, a huge number of galaxies and remote nebulae can be picked out in the full frame image - it's a busy universe out there!