Great Galactic Face - Share your version!

[metastable]

Great Galactic Face - Markarian's Chain - M86 - M84 - NGC 4388 - NGC 4387 - 52 - 65 million light years
2hr exposure - 60 x 2min - 12800iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonlit Bortle 2 (2/20/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount







Center (RA, Dec): (186.432, 12.801)
Center (RA, hms): 12h 25m 43.624s
Center (Dec, dms): +12° 48' 04.830"
Size: 40.6 x 27 arcmin
Radius: 0.406 deg
Pixel scale: 1.68 arcsec/pixel









Markarian's Chain (of Galaxies) - M86 - M84 - NGC 4388 - NGC 4387 - 52 to 65 million light years
2hr exposure - 60 x 2min - 12800iso - 600mm f/9 - Moonlit Bortle 2 (2/20/21)
Nikon focal 300mm f/4.5 + Nikon TC-301 2x teleconverter
Nikon D800 w/ Star Adventurer 2i Equatorial Mount

I wanted to do a bit more processing than normal before posting this image. I edited out all the foreground stars so almost every point of light in the above image is an entire galaxy. To me it looks like a lobster. M86, M84, NGC 4388, NGC 4387 are the face, NGC’s 4474, 4468, 4459 are the end of the tail, M87 & NGC 4371 are the claws. NGC 4402 is a raised eyebrow.

Discoloration around the edges and center of the image I suspect was caused by moonlight hitting the lens or diffracting around the lens hood.





Center (RA, Dec): (186.947, 12.897)
Center (RA, hms): 12h 27m 47.179s
Center (Dec, dms): +12° 53' 47.830"
Size: 3.01 x 2.01 deg
Radius: 1.810 deg
Pixel scale: 5.65 arcsec/pixel

[helicon]

Nice image and great post @metastable - thanks for the share!

[Ylem]

Nice work
Thanks for sharing

(My version would be a frowning cloud )

[BABOafrica]

ah, yes, the face!

Nice one!

BABO

[AstroBee]

My version - The Leo Triplet

[messier 111]

nice shot and cool , thx

[kt4hx]

Yeah, as Joe said "The Face." I have mentioned this group a few times in my observing reports over the year calling it a "galaxterism" or pattern made by multiple galaxies - similar to the term asterism. It is a curious thing to see visually.