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Principal members in Markarian's chain
| Name | R.A. (2000.0) | Dec. (2000.0) | Size | Magnitude |
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| NGC4374(M84) | 12h 25m 3.7s | +12° 53' 15" | 6.4×5.6' | 10.0 |
| NGC4406(M86) | 12h 26m 11.7s | +12° 56' 49" | 9.0×5.8' | 9.8 |
| NGC4438 | 12h 27m 45.5s | +13° 00' 36" | 8.6×3.2' | 10.9 |
| NGC4435 | 12h 27m 40.5s | +13° 04' 48" | 2.8×2.0' | 11.7 |
| NGC4461 | 12h 29m 3.0s | +13° 11' 08" | 3.5×1.4' | 12.1 |
| NGC4473 | 12h 29m 48.8s | +13° 25' 49" | 4.4×2.5' | 11.1 |
| NGC4477 | 12h 30m 2.4s | +13° 38' 11" | 3.8×3.4' | 11.3 |
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This picture captured the central region of the Virgo cluster in which some thousand galaxies contained.
You can see two bright elliptic galaxies of M84 and M86 on the right hand side.
And as a start point at these galaxies, a gentle curve is stretched to northeast formed by several fine galaxies.
Though this picture shows you only bright ones because taken with a small telescope, actually this noticeable curve consists of over ten galaxies with various sizes.
The curve is called "The Markarian's chain" from a name of observer who noticed it at first.
The Markarian's chain is a very characteristic row of galaxies in the Virgo cluster;
you can enjoy jumping galaxies into your field of view one after another by tracing telescope along the curve.
Now it's considered that members of Markarian's chain have no special gravitational interactions, in short,
these galaxies are paralleling apparently by chance. Same as various constellations formed by connecting characteristic stars,
the Markarian's chain is , as it were, like a kind of constellation composed of galaxies.
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