Astrophoto: Galaxies Galore!

By Nancy Atkinson - April 27, 2012 at 2:25 PM UTC | Extragalactic
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What a great view of Markarian's Chain! Amateur astronomer Richard Richins took this image with a 300mm Canon f/4 lens (mounted to a Canon T2i). Look closely, as Richard says there are well over 100 galaxies in this image! Click the image for a larger, better view of Markarian's Chain, which is a stretch of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. It is called a chain because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies appear almost linked together in a curved line. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s. Some of the galaxies seen here include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. How many can you find?

Thanks to Richard for sharing his image with Universe Today. See more of his work at his website,

Enchanted Skies.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com