Markarian’s Chain
Posted by admin | Filed under Messier Catalog, Z8
I finally had a somewhat clear night last thursday and decided to get the Z8 out for a little bit in the yard. I was still fighting some clouds but with a chance of the skies clearing up enough to do some observing I thought I would at least just get the telescope out in the front yard in case conditions improved. I got the girls ready for bed and promised Mary that if conditions improved enough I would get Saturn sighted in and call her down so she could check it out. I waited for twilight to give way to a darker sky. I started to see some stars so I used these first stars to align my Telrad Viewer and finder scope. Finally Saturn showed herself. The views of Saturn were hazy at best but there were moments of clear enough skies to make out some decent details. I ran in and called for Mary and she came running down. Mary finally got a chance to see Saturn and some of her moons in nice detail. Of course wherever Mary goes, Harriet is not too far behind. I turned around to see my 3 year old Harriet standing in the grass in her bare feet, t-shirt and underwear wanting to get a look at our ringed neighbor. I grabbed a stool and Harriet climbed up and was able to catch a glimpse of Saturn before more clouds drifted in. I sent the girls back to bed satisfied that they had finally gotten a chance to check something out in the eyepiece, even if the seeing wasn’t the best, I am glad they got their first glimpse.
My aunt and uncle were passing through to visit on their way to Southern Illinois for a big graduation ceremony (go Jane!). Hoping everyone was still awake I called down to my Dad’s and said he and my uncle should come down if they wanted some decent planetary views of Saturn. So they walked down and got a few good views before the clouds rolled in again. It’s really fun to show people Saturn for the first time. Even when seeing conditions are below average, Saturn is dependable and faithful and it never ceases to impress.
Later that night things really cleared off so I went back out to see what I could find. I didn’t really have a plan for finding anything but I had a pretty open sight to the Virgo Constellation and I knew I was bound to find something there. Virgo is absolutely littered with galaxies. The galaxies in Virgo are part of the Virgo Supercluster. That is the same supercluster that is home for our Local Group and very own Milky Way and nearest galactic neighbor, Andromeda. The Virgo Supercluster is our home. It contains over 100 galaxy groups and clusters and thousands and thousands of individual galaxies. I knew if I was patient enough I could scan around the upper part of Virgo and I was bound to run into *something* interesting. I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to find though.
I pointed the Telrad about half way through Virgo’s “arms” and began scanning around with a Barlowed 30mm (15mm Barlowed) wide field. A faint patch of light suddenly appeared in my eyepiece. “Gotcha” I said allowed. (I talk to myself) Then another, and another and another. Two galaxies in the same field and two more on top of each other just outside the field of view. Holy smokes. They all seemed to be in a perfect row. What had I found? I tried in vain to figure out exactly which galaxies I had in my sights. I was using StarMap Pro on my Ipod Touch but honestly the galaxies on this application in this part of the sky are just too numerous and I am not familiar enough with the night sky to know exactly what I am looking at. I observed these beauties for a little longer while trying to unsuccessfully identify them and decided to pack it in. I was getting cold and it was getting late.
Disclaimer: This is not even close to the view I get through my telescope. Think fainter, fuzzier. From right to left are M84, M86, and NGC4458 & NGC4461.
The next day after checking some star maps and still not knowing what I found I consulted the friendly experts on the CloudyNights.com forums. This is a great resource for novice and expert backyard astronomers. I described what I saw and where I looked and in minutes someone replied that I had gotten into Markarian’s Chain. Markarian’s Chain?? I googled up some images and sure enough this is exactly what I had seen. I had found 4 galaxies out of a possible observable 8 in a chain stretching through the Virgo constellation. I had found M84, M86, and NGC4458 & NGC4461. Now that I know what I am looking at I am excited to go back and hunt down the rest of the members in this amazing chain of galaxies. I can now mark off two more Messier Objects. To be fair, I will most likely share these objects with my observing partner (Mary) before I check them off our list. Thanks to the folks on the forums at CloudyNights.com, I will be able to tell her what we are looking at.
May 25th, 2010 at 3:38 am
i learn so much from your posts, john!
May 25th, 2010 at 4:24 am
Thanks for checking out the site!