M84 — Markarian's Chain (member)
Galaxy in Virgo
About
A giant elliptical galaxy in the core of the Virgo Cluster, about 55 million light-years away. It hosts a black hole of about 1.5 billion Suns, with jets seen in radio and Hubble observations, and roughly 1,775 globular clusters.
Imaging tips
- Only about 5′ by 4′, so on its own it is too small to frame: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale.
- Most imagers shoot it as part of Markarian's Chain: a 97′ × 65′ field at 784 mm held M84, M86, the Eyes and more.
- Reported totals for that wider view range from 75 minutes (10 × 450 s) to 170 minutes (34 × 5 min) to 4.5 hours of 20 s subs.
- Look for dozens of fainter galaxies in the same wide frame; one imager counted about 35.
- Best in March and April, when it reaches about 53° from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 5′ × 4′
- Magnitude
- 9.1
- Coordinates
- RA 12h 25.1m, Dec +12° 53′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Mar, Apr
- Peak altitude
- 53° from 50°N, 68° from 35°N