The Heart of Virgo

Here is a shot of the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. The bright central galaxy is M86 and this grouping is part of a slightly larger grouping within the cluster known as Markarian's Chain.

Some more detailed views

Object M86 and Friends RA:  12:26.2,  Dec:  12:57 Exposure 92 minutes (23 X 4 minutes)  ISO 1600 Camera Canon 60Da DSLR Optics Prime focus of a 200mm SkyWatcher f/5 Newtonian reflector with a Televu Paracor for a total focal length of 1150 mm Location St. Croix, Nova Scotia Processing This image was processed entirely in Images Plus . Calibration, stacking and initial statistical filter applied then a masked stretch using the arcsinh function. Masked noise reduction used to clean up the background.