This is my first image in 2026, and just like at my last one in 2025  I set myself a rather ambitious goal (given my equipment and the weather), and surprisingly, it turned out quite well.

The top image shows a selected section of the sky in the constellation Virgo, just about one degree northwest from M49.

The most prominent objects here are two barred spiral galaxies, NGC 4411 (labeled B and A), in the center of the image. They belong to the Virgo galaxy cluster, have a similar redshift, but because no signs of interaction are visible, they are likely at different distances, some 75 and 50 million light-years from Earth.

Perhaps more interesting is a much more distant (around 320 million light-years) group of four strongly interacting and therefore relatively well-studied galaxies, NGC 4410 (from right to left: A, B, C, D) on top, connected by tidal “tails” of dust and stars. NGC 4410A and NGC 4410B are already beginning to merge, and the other two galaxies will gradually follow them. Most larger galaxies (12 altogether)  in the upper part of he picture belong to the same group.

We travel even farther from Earth when looking lower left of center, where a large galaxy cluster Abell 1541 is clearly visible (those blurred yellow-orange spots), which is located about 1.25 billion light-years away.

And the farthest object in the image is a quasar with redshift of z=3.45, from which light has traveled nearly 12 billion years to reach us. It is marked by a subtle arrow near the bottom right of the center.

Finally, I’ll add a slightly more detailed view on the central part:

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