M84 & M86 in Virgo 24th March 2020 @ 00:50 UT
The two giant elliptical galaxies of M84 and M86 dominate the field but they are joined by many other fainter galaxies. I soaked up light for 47 minutes (my Hubble deep field)!
Image: 15 seconds x 190 frames (2850 seconds total), gain 6584, bin 2x2, Raw 14, black level 99, camera temperature 10.2 deg C, 1 dark. Stacked in SharpCap Pro 3.2.6248.0. The image was stacked and adjusted in SharpCap. The image was scaled down in GIMP.
This is the longest I have left the camera pointing at the same patch of sky. Even though M84 and M86 immediately appeared as fluffy blobs I really wanted to see the surrounding galaxies. As the frames built up and I played with the adjustment the smaller galaxies formed into spirals with structure!
In the image below I have marked and named several galaxies. There are many more that could be extracted from the image.
Equipment: Celestron CPC-800 at F5.9, Alt-Az mount, Altair Astro Hypercam 294C Pro Cooled (fan), Celestron Focuser, CPWI controlled remotely via Microsoft RDP and ASCOM.
Astrometry:
M84 Elliptical Galaxy mag 9.01, distance 66 million light years
M86 Elliptical Galaxy mag 8.79, distance 57 million light years
NGC 4402 Spiral Galaxy mag 11.93, distance 40 million light years
NGC 4387 Elliptical Galaxy mag 11.96, distance 58 million light years
NGC 4388 Spiral Galaxy mag 10.94, distance 57 million light years
NGC 441 Spiral Galaxy mag 13.76, distance 260 million light years
NGC 4425 Spiral Galaxy mag 11.89, distance 96 million light years
PGC 40659 Elliptical Galaxy mag 16.4, distance 58 million light years
PGC 3550049 Elliptical Galaxy mag 18.29, distance 1,900 million light years
PGC 169281 Spiral Galaxy mag 17.75, distance 1,700 million light years
PGC 40691 Elliptical Galaxy mag 19, distance unknown.
PGC 169238 Galaxy mag 17.4, distance unknown.
Charles Messier came across M84 and M86 on March 18th 1781.