Virgo – Semper Iuvenis Photography

Galaxies of Virgo (Great Galactic Face; The Eyes; Markarian’s)

The Virgo constellation

I used NGC 4425 as the centering coordinates for this image. Multiple galaxies are within the field of view. These include components of Markarian’s Chain, the Great Galactic Face, The “Eyes,” and another 10 galaxies. The Virgo constellation is chalk full of galaxies. Be sure to look at my annotated version in Astrobin. It identifies all the galaxies in the image. It also provides the acquisition details for the photo.

NGC 4425 is a Barred Spiral Galaxy located in the constellation of Virgo in the equatorial region. NGC 4425’s distance from Earth is 54.7 million light years. NGC 4425 is cataloged in the New General Catalogue (NGC). This catalogue is a list of deep space objects. John Louis Emil Dreyer compiled it in 1888. His work was an update to John Herschel’s earlier work. NGC 4425 is not a Messier Object and doesn’t have a Messier Number. The galaxy is separate and distinct, not in Milky Way galaxy or The Solar System.

When we observe the NGC 4425, we are not looking at it as it currently appears. Instead, we see it as it used to appear 54.7 million years ago, given how long light takes to reach us from there.

NGC 4425 is situated close to the celestial equator. Thus, it is at least partly visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.

Each of the 20+ galaxies in this image have a history, a unique story.

The Galactic Face in Virgo

NGC 4387

I centered my sensor on this Elliptical Galaxy in the Virgo constellation so I could frame the “Face”. NGC 4387 is situated close to the celestial equator. It is partly visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year.

It is the nose in the commonly viewed Galactic Face of Virgo. NGC 4388 is the mouth while the eyes are the elliptical galaxies, M 86 and M 84, of Markarians chain.

NGC 4402 is the galaxy to the left and NGC 4413 is to the bottom right.

NGC 4567/8 – Siamese Twin Galaxies

The focus of this image are NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, a pair of unbarred spiral galaxies in the constellation Virgo, about 60 million light-years away. They are known as “The Siamese Twins” or “The Butterfly Galaxies”.

While there are four galaxies in this photo, the focus of this image are NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, a pair of unbarred spiral galaxies in the constellation Virgo, about 60 million light-years away. They are known as “The Siamese Twins” or “The Butterfly Galaxies”. Both galaxies have small bright nuclei, many knotty arms, and arm segments, and a hint of an inner ring.

I find these “interacting” galaxies to be most interesting. They both have nearly the same red shift so they may well be very close or in actual contact. However, other than a dim general x-ray glow involving both galaxies there is no indication of interaction. Neither galaxy is distorted nor are there any tidal tails. NGC4568 has hosted two recent supernova, 1990B and 2004cc.

NGC 4564, the galaxy to the right, is an elliptical galaxy in the Virgo constellation, about 57 million light-years away.

This image was taken from my driveway in the hills of western North Carolina over two nights in April 2024 and consists of 209 3 minute subs from an RC8 scope at 1627mm. An ASI071MC camera cooled to 20f using an ANTLIA quad-band light pollution filter riding an EQ6r Pro mount collected the photons. Image acquisition was done using APT and processed manually using PixInsight.