Chris Schur, taken from Payson, Arizona
Markarian’s Chain is an alignment of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, at least seven of which seem to be moving together (and not just simply appear together by coincidence). This LRGB image is made of a single pointing with a larger format CCD and 5.7 hours of total exposure time. The photographer notes: “Most imagers shoot this field with one of those diminuative 80mm refractors, but here I can get the entire group with my fast 10 inch at a much higher resolution with the help of our Baader MPCC coma corrector. Take note of the extremely blue caterpillar shaped galaxy to the right of center. It is unique.”