Date/Time: April 7, 2011 9:49PM PDT

Location: Victoria Centre Observatory, Observatory Hill, Victoria, BC, Canada
Conditions: Clear, 6°C, not completely dark skies

Markarian’s Chain is part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, featuring (left to right) NGC’s 4477, 4473, 4461/4458 (pair) 4438 and 4435 (pair, a.k.a. The Eyes), and M86. NGC 4402 is an edge-on spiral galaxy above M86. NGC 4425 is another edge-on spiral galaxy below M86. M84 is just off the edge of the right side of the frame.

Telescope/mount: Hutech-modified Canon T2i dSLR, IDAS UIBAR-III filter, prime focus on Tele Vue NP127is on a Paramount ME, unguided

Exposures: 60x1min light frames; 15 dark frames, ISO 1600

Processing:

ImagesPlus 3.82 x64
1. Auto process: Calibrate with dark frames, Bayer at Capture white balance, Normalize, Grade, Align, Combine (Min/Max Exclude Average)
2. Apply aggressive contrast stretch (BP 1846, Bkgd 0)
3. Gaussian Background Compensation used to compensate for no Flat Frames
4. Crop & save as 48 bit TIF

ACDSee Pro 3
1. Modest contrast stretch
2. Colour balanced on The Eyes
3. Resize & save as 24 bit jpg