M86 in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster

Click here for same images with galaxies identified.

Location: Rodeo, New Mexico, USA (109 1 W, 31 52 N)

Date: 9 and 11 March 2010

Camera: Alta U8300

Telescope: AstroSysteme Austria N8

Frames: Four 20 minute L frames and three 10 minutes exposures in RGB

Processing: Stacked in CCDStack, L and RGB curves combined, highlights and unsharpened and other correction made in Photoshop SC4

Comments: Captured using LightBuckets equipment.

Image details: This image shows central region of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. The Virgo Galaxy Cluster is a huge clust of galaxies approximately 56 million light years from Earth. The two dominant galaxies in this image are M86 (centre) and M84 (below M86). These two galaxies are giant elliptical galaxies 20 times larger than average galaxies.