This was a quickie (one night) for my first monochrome imaging of Markarian's Chain.  My prior images had been with an OSC setup.  My first impression was that my that the monochrome is not a lot better, than the OSC version.  However, I had to change my mind when I compared them side by side.  That is true even though, honestly, the individual galaxies in the chain are objects that by themselves would be too small to be considered for imaging with this OTA.

To complicate my post processing, I’ve discovered an issue in my previous/just posted image of Bode's Galaxy (M81/M82).  For some reason, the AI in Star Xterminator is clipping out the Ha / galaxy data with the stars.  This results in loss of Ha/Galaxy details to work with in the starless images.  Since Ha often times contains the finer details of a lot of stellar objects, this result in a loss of detail in the final image, particularly from the Ha image which has often been the mask/data addition I use to get details back into the final image.  I have raised a ticket on the RC Astro set along with samples of the images/results, so I'm hoping for a resolution in the near future.

It only seems to be happening with galaxies in the image; I've not seen this occur when working with larger nebula structures.

NINA/PHD2 seemed to not be getting along last night, so I didn't get all the imaging time that I had hoped for.  I also have approximately 40 hours on my MyT mount since its return from SB and I'm starting to see some guide 'artifacts' that might be indicating that the new worm assembly in the DEC and RA are breaking in enough that a new PEC might be beneficial.  I did not lose any  frames due to guide error/misshaped stars other than when PHD2/NINA stopped talking to each other, or at least stopped listening while continuing to yell commands at each other.  

For monochrome this is a decidely short/small data set for the individual filters, but I believe it turned out well despite this.

Let me know what you think:

Markarian's Chain from Wikipedia:

Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies, M84 and M86, in 1781. The other galaxies seen in the chain were discovered by William Herschel and are now known primarily by their catalog numbers in John Louis Emil Dreyer's New General Catalogue, published in 1888.  It was ultimately named after the Armenian astrophysicist, Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.  Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. It is located at RA 12h 27m and Dec +13° 10′.

The bright members of the chain are visible through small telescopes. Larger telescopes can be used to view the fainter galaxies.  Near the center there appear the pair of interacting galaxies NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, about 50 million light-years away, known to some as Markarian's Eyes.

At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.  Six of the points on the chain can be marked by galaxies. The other two points are pairs of galaxies.