At a real distance of about 53mio. light-years and situated near the center of the famous Virgo-Galaxy-Cluster,you can find these 3 galaxies,labeled NGC4216,NGC4206 and NGC4222.The brightest one is NGC4216,sized apparently 8,1′ × 1,8′.

With a brightness of about 10th.mag.,it is an easy object even for smaller telescopes.Typed as a SAB(s)b-galaxy it is nearly an edged-on-galaxy.It is one of the largest members of the Virgo-Cluster,but contains very little neutral hydrogen,resulting in very few star-formation areas.

Quite a lot of dwarf galaxies can be found in this region of the Virgo-Cluster,some of which interacted with these 3 galaxies.Traces of that can be found near the upper right edge of NGC4216.

NGC4216 was first observed by William Herschel in 1784.

position (epoch2000  NGC4216):

Ra.: 12h 15m 54,4s
Decl.: +13° 08′ 58″

image data:

LRGB image from L = 26x1200s ,RGB = 8x1200s each a total of 16.7hours

80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain

FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB Gen-II filters Prompt 7

CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled

image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken

In this 21`x21`arc-minutes large FOV you see NGC4216 in the midth,NGC4206 down to the right and NGC4222 to the upper left.

North is up.

Click HERE to get a full resolution picture. 

In this more detailed image you may trace the very prominent dust-lanes in the spiral-arms of NGC4216: