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Virgo Galaxy Cluster

The Virgo Galaxy Cluster includes up to 2000 individual galaxies at a distance of 60 million light years from our local group of galaxies.  Our Local Group of Galaxies is a small cluster that includes our Milky Way Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy, and the pair M81-82.  The Virgo Galaxy Cluster lies at the center of a larger Supercluster, that includes our Local Group.  Our Local Group is drawn by the large collective gravitational mass of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, and will eventually be pulled into the Virgo Cluster.  This image of the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster is centered on the giant elliptical galaxy M86.  Another bright elliptical galaxy M84 is on the left side of this image.  Six other galaxies are immediately obvious, all of which I saw visually through the eyepiece the night after this image was taken.  If you look closely, there are over a dozen other "fuzzy stars" that are actually other smaller or more distant galaxies.  I can count at least 24 galaxies on this image.   This image combined 2 hours 40 minutes of exposures with an IDAS light pollution filter, with an ST10XME camera through a TEC140 mm refractor.

Music:  Sweet Dreams, by the Eurythmics