Here are a couple images taken last Saturday night at the River Ridge Observatory. Both were taken with my 11″ SCT at f/1.9 and were made from 12 five minute subs. This configuration is not ideal for single galaxies, with a few exceptions, but okay for galaxy clusters.First we have the Leo Triplet which is well positioned in the evening sky after dark right now. The triplet is made up of spiral galaxies Messier 65 & 66 and NGC 3628 aka the Hamburger Galaxy.The next image is of Markarian’s Chain, a string of galaxies making up part of the vast Virgo Cluster (which contains 1300 or more galaxies). The two brightest galaxies on the left are Messier 84 & 86 while the other galaxies around them and extending to that relaxed J have NGC designations. There are many catalogs of objects in astronomy, perhaps the most famous is the Messier Catalog, another the Herschel Catalog both named after the astronomer who created them. The New General Catalog is close to 200 years old and might be the first organized catalog. It uses a 4 digit number that increases from the zero point over the prime meridian which runs through the UK. It was good to be the world empire at the time. Anyway, these are just a few galaxies to be seen in the Virgo Cluster.
