M84 & M86 GALAXIES on 2024-04-11,12

The Galaxies M84 and M86 are located about 54 million light years from our Earth in the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. M86 and M84 are the two brightest galaxies in the photo. They are both elliptical galaxies. The strange, almost twisted, shaped galaxy toward the upper left is NGC4438. Slightly above it, and to the right, is NGC4435. There are numerous other galaxies that can be found in the photo. The Virgo Galaxy Cluster contains approximately 2,500 member galaxies. If you open the Full Size View and zoom in close, over 70 galaxies can be counted in this photo. Galaxies difficult to find appear as a faint smudge or a tiny cloud.

This photo was taken in Kyle, Texas through a 6-inch f/4 Telescope, on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount, with a ZWO ASI533MC PRO color camera. The processing was done in PixInsight. The total image acquisition time is: 04 hrs  54 min 00 sec.

 Full Size View Full size files are very large and can take a minute to download. After downloading the full-size picture to zoom in or out on a computer hold down the Ctrl key and use the scroll mouse button, or you can press the + or - key. 

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