Galaxy M84 and Galaxy M86 in Virgo

This is a pair of bright elliptical galaxies near the center of the Virgo galaxy cluster. M84 is the rightmost of this pair and is usually classified as either E1 or S0 and its size is about 25,000 light years.

Note that there are several other galaxies in this image -- including NGC4387 which lies between the pair. If you put your mouse over this figure, you will see several more of the galaxies in this cluster, most notably NGC4388, NGC4402, and NGC4435 and NGC4438 at the bottom. These galaxies also start Markarian's chain. If you hold the mouse button down, you will see this chain of galaxies which terminates in M89.

Images taken with TEC-140 Telescope mounted on Losmandy G11 mount. Camera used was a Canon EOS20D used at prime focus.

Ten 3 minutes exposures dark, flat, and bias compensated, aligned and stacked, background removed and Digitaly Developed in ImagesPlus 2.50 beta 6. Noise removal using NeatImage.