The Virgo cluster is composed of many elliptic and spiral galaxies with seven Messier objects among them. The Markarian chain of galaxies at the right is arranged as a racket's handle (including elliptical galaxies M84 and M86), while the racket frame is completed with a wide arc of bright galaxies at left (counter-clockwise beginning at the bottom center: elliptical galaxies M87 and M89, spiral galaxies M90, M91 and M88, and elliptic galaxies NGC4474 and NGC4459). Many other smaller galaxies can be seen in the image.

Takahashi FSQ106N scope. Losmandy G11 mount. SBIG STL11000 camera. Two nights of imaging, from rural skies in La Mancha 150 Km away from Madrid (sky brightness at the zenit: 21.4 magnitudes per square acrcsecond). Completed in February 2015, excellent transparency and poor seeing.

Exposures through LRGB filters: 6 x 15 minutes Luminance, 6 x 15 minutes Red, 6 x 15 minutes Green, 6 x 15 minutes Blue

Processing in PixInsight, final touches in Photoshop.

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