Edge-on Galaxy Group (NGC4216, NGC4206, NGC4222)

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About this Image

NGC 4216, located in the center of this image is an edge-on barred spiral galaxy not far from the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Due to the internal motions of galaxies inside the Virgo Cluster it's redshift cannot be used to determine it's distance. The entire group of galaxies is moving away from us, but NGC 4216 is moving towards us with respect to other group members.
To the upper left side the smaller edge-on galaxy NGC 4222 is situated, to the lower right side there is the similar shaped galaxy NGC 4206.
The distance to NGC 4216 is approx. 40 million light years. North is up.

Literature:
Find a deep SDSS image here: 1.

A highly stretched luminance image below is showing several tidal streamers around NGC 4216.

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Technical Details
Optics

RCOS 20" f/8 cassegrain in secondary focus

Mount Paramount ME
Camera SBIG STL-11000M at -25C, internal filter wheel
Filters SBIG LRGB
Date March 17-20, 2007.
Location Remotely aquired from Blackbird Observatory/New Mexico
operated by R. Jay Gabany
Sky Conditions mag 6.5 sky, seeing 3-3.5" FWHM
Exposure L:R:G:B = 210:60:60:60 minutes (30 minute sub-exposures)
all 1x1 bin
Processing Image aquisition in Maxim, preprocessing in CCDStack; wavelet processing; color balance, curves, L blending, unsharp mask in Photoshop CS2;
north is up;