Markarian's Chain is part of a larger group of galaxies called the Virgo Cluster, about 53 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. They are called Markarian's Chain because they a portion of them form a nice curving line that resembles a chain when viewed from Earth. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.

I setup to try out a new pier mount for my scope, got everything imaging, then passed out for a few hours with high hopes to capture a good 30 light frames. Unfortunately the wind picked up after I passed out and ruined about half of the frames. This lead to the image being a lot more noisy than I had wanted. I will probably give this a few more hours of exposure sometime soon weather permitting.

Enjoy!

Image Info:
Shot the night of 4.12.13 from Southern Utah
Canon Rebel XSi (Ha Mod)
Orion 8" F3.9 with Paracorr II
Atlas EQ-G (EQMOD)
Acquisition with Backyard EOS
14 Lights at 300 seconds ISO 800
Darks, Bias, and Flats
Registration and Stacking in IRIS
Post Processing in Photoshop