Galaxy of the Month in Virgo

• NGC 4365 in Virgo

  May 2024 - Galaxy of the Month

  Early May ends the serious galaxy observing season for the Spring in the UK, not that we really had one with the terrible weather in Spring 2024 here, as astronomical dark disappears until mid-August.

  I am indebted to Mark Stuart for bringing my attention to this interesting galaxy group in Virgo. NGC 4365 is an interesting and bright galaxy that should be visible in small telescopes, however the interest here lies in the small group of galaxies below it including NGC 4341, NGC 4342 and NGC 4343 along with the fainter galaxies IC 3259 and IC 3267.

  All of the NGC galaxies here were found by William Herschel in 1784. The two IC galaxies were found by Bigourdan using the 12.4” refractor from Paris in 1895. Unfortunately, observations in the classical period also rather scrambled the NGC and IC numbering of the galaxies in this group as William and John did not give positions for the individual galaxies they discovered. There does seem to have been a lot of confusion over the galaxy identification in the field but I think what we have now is correct. See Harold Corwin’s notes on these in his Historically-aware NGC/IC Positions and Notes.

  The E3 galaxy NGC 4365 is the central galaxy of the W cloud in the Virgo cluster lying about 6 Mpc behind the main supercluster with a distance of about 22.8 Mpc. NGC 4365 appears to be stripping globular clusters and stars from NGC 4362 and the two galaxies are tidally interacting. For more on NGC 4365 see ESO's article Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4365 With Numerous Young Star Clusters.

  Interestingly the galaxies in this area appear to be assigned to different galaxy groups in LGG 292 and LGG 295 and the area does seem rather confused as to what galaxies go where. The group is also included in the WBL catalogue of poor clusters as number 403. I note that the group is also suggested to be a Hickson like compact group. There is an interesting wide field view of this region on Jim Thommes' website.

  NGC 4341 and NGC 4342 are suspected to be lenticular galaxies, whilst NGC 4343 is an edge on spiral that hosts an AGN of the LINER variety at its centre. NGC 4342 has been suggested to have an unusually massive central black hole for its size and is X-Ray luminous. Both the IC galaxies appear to be spirals, and according to their brightness in the UV from the GALEX satellite are currently undergoing a lot of star formation. The same would apply to NGC 4343. It seems that Hubble imaged part of the galaxy, although I only see this in the Wikipedia entry. Chandra also observed the group in X-Rays and showed that both NGC 4341 and 4342 are surrounded by a large amount of very hot gas.

  The observations of this group in the The Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) Vol. 2 are confused as they refer to NGC 4341 and NGC 4342 by IC numbers rather than the NGC numbers assigned to them today. The suggestion is that a 30-35cm scope is needed to see the brighter ones but a 40-45cm will do better. There are no observations of IC 3259 and IC 3267. It is probably worth remembering that the observations the NSOG are based on are over 40 years old now. Steve Gottlieb’s notes suggest that at least 32cm is needed and he normally observers from a high altitude site, to see these galaxies. He suggests that at least a 17.5” is needed to see the IC pair which suggests from the UK that maybe 50cm is needed from a good site. This is the size of scope that Mark Stuart was using for his own observations.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

  If you'd like to try out the Clear Skies Observing Guides (CSOG), you can download observing guide for the current Galaxy of the Month without the need to register. CSOG are not associated with the Webb Deep-Sky Society but the work of Victor van Wulfen.

• NGC 5363 in Virgo

  June 2023 - Galaxy of the Month

  Every year I wonder whether to do a GOM for the months of June and July as it no longer gets astronomically dark here at the latitude of the UK to observe anything except bright globular clusters and every year I try and keep the thread going. This month I have chosen the bright pair of galaxies NGC 5363 and NGC 5364 at the eastern end of Virgo. Perhaps as expected they were both discovered by William Herschel. NGC 5363 was found in 1784 but NGC 5364 had to wait another two years until 1786 for its discovery.

  NCG 5363 is part of the NGC 5364 group of galaxies which itself is part of the Virgo III cloud, a chain of perhaps 72 galaxy groups galaxies spread out to the east of the main Virgo group. See An Atlas of The Universe website for more information on the Virgo III cloud.

  NGC 5363 is characterised as a lenticular galaxy but it seems to contain a large amount of dust which appears to form a spiral shape along with shells of material which suggests a recent merger event. The nucleus is also an AGN of the LINER type. In contrast NGC 5364 is an almost face on grand design spiral. Hubble captured an image of its inner core. Unfortunately, John Herschel independently found this galaxy so it also sometimes goes under the name NGC 5317.

  The NGC 5364 group, also known as LGG 362, contains 7 NGC galaxies in NGC 5348, NGC 5356, NGC 5360, NGC 5364, NGC 5363, NGC 5300 and NGC 5338. The group is spread out over a degree of sky. Most of the rest of the galaxies were also found by William Herschel, although a number were also independently discovered by Bindon Stoney using the 72” at Birr. The group is thought to lie at a distance of about 65 million light-years.

  NGC 5363 and NGC 5364 form a non-interacting pair, although they may be in the early stages of a gravitational interaction. Bob Franke's website has a nice image of the pair and Thomas Henne provided a wide field view of the group in Picture of the Month.

  NGC 5363 and NGC 5364 make several lists including the Astronomical League’s (AL) H400 list and Stephen O’Meara’s Hidden Treasures list (number 72). O’Meara claims that both of these galaxies are visible in a 4” (10cm) refractor but I am guessing this is from his high mountain site.

  NGC 5363 and 5364 are pretty close together and both should fit in the same field of view using a medium power eyepiece. I suspect that only the core of NGC 5364 will be seen except with larger instruments as it is a close to face on spiral. The Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) Vol. 2 suggests that NGC 5363 can be seen with 20-25cm instruments as a stellar core. Larger instruments should bring out more of the halo. NGC 5364 may require 35cm or more to see much and to find the small edge on galaxy NGC 5356 will probably require 40-45cm scopes under anything but the best conditions. I suspect that 45-50cm may be required to find the other edge on galaxy NGC 5360.

  As an aside this group is next to ACO 1809 but I suspect that is one for the imagers or EAA people, or those using very large telescopes from high sites.

  Interestingly NGC 5363 was also included as the C component of the double star BU 1438, also known as STT 273.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 4754 in Virgo

  May 2022 - Galaxy of the Month

  With the skies from northern latitudes starting to brighten at this time of year making galaxy observing more difficult I have to start choosing brighter objects for the GOM.

  Our galaxy this month is the nice pair in Virgo of NGC 4754 and NGC 4762. They were both discovered by William Herschel on the same night in March 1784. They are also known as Holmberg 478. NGC 4754 is also classified as an interacting system as VV 1573 in the extended Vorontsov-Velyaminov catalogue. Although Virgo is now starting to slip away from the observing season, and the nights are getting bright now in May, it should still be possible to pick up this pair.

  Both are suggested to be lenticular galaxies with a classification of SB0 which suggests a barred form. They present quite different projections on the sky however with NGC 4762 being practically edge on and NGC 4754 being more open.

  The galaxies are suggested to be a non-interacting pair, although both galaxies do show some signs of interaction, particularly NGC 4762 which shows tidal distortions at both ends of the galaxy in deep images. The problems come in that the distance measurements to each galaxy would suggest they are not close together in space, however the distance measurements by differing methods are wildly discordant. They are both however believed to be members of the Virgo cluster. There are suggestions that NGC 4762’s extensions may have come from a merger with a smaller galaxy a few billion years ago. NGC 4762 also appears to have a form of AGN, classified as a LINER. If the distances are correct these are both very large galaxies, slightly larger than our Milky Way.

  Stephen O’Meara in his book The Secret Deep suggests that Allan Sandage noted that NGC 4762 is one of the flattest galaxies, as seen from the earth, in the universe. He also nicknames it the Paper Kite galaxy based on a description in Smyth’s Bedford catalogue. Both galaxies appear in the Astronomical League’s H400 program and, indeed, in many other lists. There is a stunning amateur image of the pair at the Capella Observatory website. NGC 4762 was also imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

  One of Lord Rosse’s assistants, Samuel Hunter, suggested that he could see that NGC 4762 was warped with the 72” at Birr. It is probable that with the larger aperture telescopes now in amateur hands that these may also be visible today. Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) Vol.2 suggests that 20-25cm telescopes will be needed to see both galaxies and that 40-45cm should start showing some detail. I suspect that given the usual skies from the UK then perhaps 30cm maybe better for seeing them, although there are observations of NGC 4754 at least with a 25cm scope from less than ideal skies in the UK. There are also observations of NGC 4762 in the Webb Deep-Sky Society Observer's Handbook (WSDSOH) Vol 4, but perhaps surprisingly not NGC 4754. Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) suggests both galaxies are visible in 15cm, but remember their observations were done from high and dry altitude sites. They do suggest however larger apertures to see any detail.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 5566 in Virgo

  May 2021 - Galaxy of the Month

  This month’s GOM is the triple system associated with NGC 5566, also known as Arp 286. The galaxies lie in the far east of Virgo. The system is composed of the galaxies NGC 5566, 5560 and 5569.

  NGC 5560 and NGC 5566 were discovered by William Herschel in 1786 but the much fainter galaxy NGC 5569 had to wait until 1849 when it was discovered by Johnstone Stoney using the 72” at Birr. Dreyer in 1878 also noted the faint galaxy now catalogued as CGCG 047-019 and sketched it while he was examining the NGC 5566 field but did not manage to get an accurate position for it so it never made it into the NGC.

  The three NGC galaxies appear to form a physical triplet. All three galaxies appear to be spirals. Arp classified NGC 5566 in his group of double galaxies, infall and attraction, connection not visible. The triplet is also included in the WBL catalogue as number 501 and in the LGG as number 379. The former only includes the triplet but the LGG catalogue has 6 galaxies in LGG 379 and includes the triplet composing of NGC 5574, NGC 5576 and NGC 5577 about 41’ south as part of the group.

  The NGC 5566 group appears to be interacting from the distortions in the spiral arms of NGC 5560 and also all three galaxies have strong UV emission as noted by the GALEX satellite, which suggests lots of star formation going on. NGC 5566 is particularly interesting as it appears to have a strong ring from which the spiral arms appear to radiate rather than the normal bar or core, giving rise to its morphological classification of SAB(r)ab. Deep images also suggest that NGC 5566 has tidal plumes pulled out as part of the interaction. The spiral arms of NGC 5560 are also strongly distorted. NGC 5566 appears to be a LINER type AGN, perhaps not surprising as the interactions are likely to be feeding the black hole at its centre.

  The group is about 85 million years or so away. The suggestion is that if the group is at this distance then NGC 5566 is about 150 million light-years across so much larger than our Milky Way and would be one of the largest galaxies in Virgo. There is a superb amateur image of this group.

  Visually the group should contain challenges for all size telescopes. NGC 5566 should be visible in 20cm telescopes but to see NGC 5569 is probably going to require 45cm+. Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) suggests that 15cm should be enough to see NGC 5566 but I suspect this was form a high altitude site. I am guessing that since the Rosse team saw CGCG 047-019 then it should visible in 50cm+ so a nice challenge for large telescope observers. The triplet is compact enough that it should fit in a medium power (270x) field with a hyperwide field eyepiece. CGCG 047-019 (also known as PGC 51269) will also be in the same field. Of the NGC galaxies NGC 5690 is going to be the hardest to find as it is a face on low surface brightness object and probably only the core will be seen. NGC 5566 is part of the H400 II listing from the Astronomical League.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 in Virgo

  May 2020 - Galaxy of the Month

  From northern latitudes we get little or no astronomical dark from May to August so the targets for the GOM are going to be brighter ones and for this month I have chosen the galaxy pair NGC 4567 and NGC 4568, popularly known as the Siamese twins, or Butterfly Galaxies which were discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and then rediscovered by John Herschel in 1829.

  The interacting pair are part of the Virgo cluster and, perhaps surprisingly, did not make Arp’s catalogue, although they did make Vorontsov-Velyaminov’s catalogue of interacting galaxies as VV 219. The pair appear to be in the process of merging.

  There have been two supernova seen in the pair with SN 2004cc and SN 2020fqv, discovered on March 31st 2020 at about magnitude 15, there is an image of the supernova at The Virtual Telescope Project.

  The galaxies are about 52-60 million light-years distant and if at that distance the two cores would be separated by only perhaps 20000 light-years. Surprisingly for two galaxies so close together they do not appear to be distorted that much by galactic tides so maybe this is just a projection effect or perhaps this is just a very early phase of the interaction as the highest rates of star formation appear to be in the overlap areas. A molecular collision front containing a number of large molecular clouds strung out in a large filament was also found in the overlap region in the CO bands using ALMA.

  Both galaxies are spirals with the rather exotic classification of SA(rs)bc. The GALEX UV image of the pair shows a number of large bright star forming regions, particularly in NGC 4567.

  The pair would also appear to be part of a subgroup in the Virgo cluster catalogued as LGG 285 which has 44 listed galaxies in it, although not the nearby NGC 4564.

  One of the best amateur images of this pair is at the CHART32 website which also shows the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 4564 (another William Herschel discovery).

  Perhaps surprisingly the pair did not make either the H400 or H400 II lists but was added into the H400 III galaxy list, they were in general getting into pretty nondescript galaxies by then 😊

  Visually the pair can be a challenge in small telescopes as they are perhaps fainter than expected, even an observation with a 10” from UK skies suggested the pair was not so easy.

  Larger telescopes will show the pair relatively easily and start to show some of the structure evident in images. As they are so close together then high power may be useful. They galaxies make a pretty trio with NGC 4564 in a medium power field and using a modern hyperwide eyepiece (one of the advantages of the cost of these things).

  

  

  For those with larger telescopes there is also the faint galaxy IC 3578 at 15th magnitude in the same field, this was discovered by Frost photographically using a 24” refractor in 1904.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

  Observations

  We have an observation by Ivan Maly with his 20-inch, observing from a dark site in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania.

• NGC 4410A in Virgo

  April 2020 - Galaxy of the Month

  This month’s challenge is the interacting group of galaxies around NGC 4410A. The main double galaxy NGC 4410 was discovered by John Herschel in 1828. Although the group has been listed as part of the Virgo cluster and lies within its spatial bounds on the sky it actually lies at a distance of perhaps 111 Mpc, far beyond the Virgo cluster. The other galaxies in the group include IC 790, sometimes called NGC 4410C, and PGC 40736, sometimes known as NGC 4410D. The galaxies are all interacting and show tidal tails.

  The group is also listed as WBL 408, a group of 9 galaxies which also includes NGC 4411. However there are some issues with this as some distance measurements place NGC 4411 at about 55 million light years so it would be part of the Virgo cluster not part of the 4410 group. Note that NGC 4411 is also known as IC 3339 because there were errors in the co-ordinates listed by the discoverers Bigourdan and Peters, and Dreyer thought they were two separate objects.

  The galaxy PGC 40745, sometimes known as NGC 4411B may be associated with NGC 4411A and thus part of the Virgo cluster.

  There is an excellent image of the group at Hanson Astronomy Photos and also at the Chilean Advanced Robotic Telescope website and a much deeper image at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) website. For an annotated image of all the galaxies in the area see the ManTrapSkies website.

  The group contains some X-ray emitting gas which may be related to the active nucleus of NGC 4410A. It is suggested that the group is in the process of evolving from a spiral rich group, which typically do not have a hot intra cluster medium, to an elliptical one via mergers. The strong UV emission from the group also meant it made Markarians catalogue as Mrk 1325. Perhaps surprisingly it did not make Arp’s catalogue, although it is in the extended Vorontsov-Velyaminov (VV) catalogue of interacting galaxies as VV 1537.

  Observationally there are a number of galaxies that may be picked up in the area. At the recent (2020) Haw Wood Star Party I saw 5 galaxies in the area using my 22-inch but others using smaller telescopes saw 7. This may come from using a tablet program such as SkySafari at the telescope when you know there are other galaxies there and look for them rather than looking cold at the field. It also helps to have a driven scope that stops wind buffeting. To show that NGC 4410 is a double galaxy may require high power.

  NGC 4411a and b are face on spirals and are large and diffuse and as such much more difficult to see, they will however appear in the same field as NGC 4410 when using a modern hyperwide eyepiece at say 250x.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• Hickson 62 in Virgo

  May 2019 - Galaxy of the Month

  With the skies nominally no longer dark from May onwards at my latitude to see any galaxies at all means I need to choose brighter targets. This month it is the bright galaxy group Hickson 62.

  The main pair here are NGC 4776 and NGC 4778. Both of these galaxies were discovered by John Herschel in May 1836. The third NGC galaxy in the group, NGC 4761, was discovered by Tempel in 1882 along with the fourth galaxy NGC 4764.

  By today’s standards Tempel was using a relatively small telescope in an 11” refractor but he was an exceptional observer and he described them as eF, so they are going to be a challenge to find.

  As seems often in the NGC there is some confusion here about the designations and it appears that William Herschel did see the brighter galaxy pair but could not resolve them into two so he described it as a double nebula and it was entered into the NGC as NGC 4759. Continuing confusion comes with some of the professional databases like SIMBAD where NGC 4778 is equated with NGC 4761, which is the small galaxy NE of the double pair. Even the identity of NGC 4764 is uncertain because Tempel did not give Dreyer co-ordinates and they made up a position for it.

  As such there is a wide variation in sky charting programs as to what galaxy is which. Skytools for instance appears to have a confused set of designations in both SkyTools 3 and 4. SkySafari 6 appears to fit the corrected NGC view of the group.

  Views of the group are going to be complicated by the 8th magnitude star situated in the middle of the group of galaxies. The compact nature of the group also suggests that you are going to need to use high power on it to separate the a/b pair and probably to bring out the others.

  Hickson 62 is interesting because it is one of the closest compact groups and by studying it in X-Rays with Chandra we can see a very hot (several million degree) intra cluster medium. This intra cluster medium is not smooth and appears to have several cavities in it which may be what is stopping a classical cooling flow happening. These cavities could be the remnants of radio lobes from the past when NGC 4778’s central engine was more active.

  Currently NGC 4778 is classified as a low luminosity AGN. Observations of NGC 4778 also suggest that it may have had a recent merger with a much smaller galaxy. NGC 4778 is classified as an S0, a lenticular, as indeed is NGC 4776. The other two galaxies in the group are also either elliptical or lenticulars. The group appears to be at a distance of about 60Mpc.

  Observationally NGC 4778 appears in Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) under the NGC 4759 moniker where they suggest that it may be visible as a faint patch with a 15-cm. I would think that from UK skies at least 20-cm would be needed to repeat that observation. Interestingly the pair do not appear in the Night Sky Observer's Guide (NSOG) under any designation. The group is part of the Astronomical League Galaxy Groups and Clusters list.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• May 2017 - Galaxy of the Month

  NGC 4536 in Virgo

  As the shorter nights come along finding challenging galaxies of the month becomes harder. In fact from mid-May to mid-August we no longer get any astronomical dark in the UK. As such this month’s galaxy is somewhat brighter than usual suspects.

  NGC 4536 was first discovered by William Herschel in 1784. Lying roughly 50 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo NGC 4536 is not part of the main Virgo group of galaxies but is part of the Virgo II subgroups, in this case part of the group containing M61. This group is also catalogued as LGG 287. The Virgo II subgroups are part of a long southern tail to the main Virgo cluster. See "An Atlas of the Universe" for more information.

  NGC 4536 appears to be undergoing some form of starburst, although there is no obvious interacting galaxy. It is classified as SAB(rs)bc. It will be interesting to know how much of the spiral arms can be seen visually. There is a fine Hubble image of the system. Perhaps as expected, because of all the star formation going on, NGC 4536 also shows up well in the GALEX UV images.

  It is possible that NGC 4536 is a mild AGN given the excited lines seen in both the IR and visible. XMM observations also suggest the presence of a million solar mass black hole at the centre. Finding black holes in bulgeless galaxies is unusual.

  In 1981 NGC 4536 was home to supernova 1981B, a Type 1a that reached a maximum magnitude of 12.3, well within reach of amateur telescopes.

  NGC 4536 is part of the Herschel 400 program so it can be seen with small telescopes of around 20cm aperture. Nearby is the edge on galaxy NGC 4533 and this may prove to be more of a challenge to see visually as it shines dimly at 14.4 (P). It was discovered by Tempel in 1877. It was pretty easy in my 55cm telescope under not great skies so it should be visible in much smaller telescopes, perhaps down to 30cm. It did make a fine sight as a pair with NGC 4536. NGC 4533 is also part of the M61 subgroup.

  Also nearby, and part of the same subgroup, is the bright edge on spiral NGC 4527 (also discovered by William Herschel) and for those wanting a real challenge there is the faint edge on IC 3474, discovered photographically by Isaac Roberts in 1892. These others are also part of the same M61 sub group.

  The brighter galaxies will fit in the same field of view of a medium power (x130) hyperwide field eyepiece. Jim Thommes has a nice amateur image of the NGC 4536 and NGC 4527 pair.

  I know of no visual observations of IC 3474 but at mag 14.9 (B) it should be in reach of some of the larger telescopes. Unfortunately I did not try when I was observing NGC 4536.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• April 2015 - Galaxy of the Month

  NGC 4330 in Virgo

  This interactive image of NGC 4330 was provided by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using Aladin Sky Atlas. This finder chart should help you locate this galaxy, and a few others too.

  As spring rolls around it would be remiss not to choose the galaxy of the month from the Virgo cluster. As always with such a well-known cluster most people have their favourite galaxies but for this month I have chosen the little observed edge on galaxy NGC 4330.

  Situated in a nice field of galaxies NGC 4330 was first discovered by Bindon Stoney is 1852 using Lord Rosse’s 72" at Birr. It was later independently rediscovered by d’Arrest using a 15.4" refractor. The other galaxies in the field NGC 4294, 4299 and 4313 were all discovered by William Herschel so this suggests that NGC 4330 is not going to be any easy target.

  The galaxy itself is a late type spiral galaxy with a small bulge that is currently falling in towards the centre of the Virgo cluster as defined by M87. Because of this it is undergoing ram stripping of its gas, a process whereby the gas in the galaxy is stripped out by the interaction with the intra-cluster medium. As such NGC 4330 would appear to be transforming from a spiral galaxy into a lenticular galaxy. NGC 4330 appears to have a bright UV tail consisting of neutral Hydrogen (HI) gas which points directly away from M87. Currently NGC 4330 only appears to have about 15% of the expected HI mass of a similar field spiral which suggests that it is well on the way to becoming a lenticular. Although it is relatively close in spatial terms to the larger spiral galaxy NGC 4313 the stellar component of NGC 4330 does not look like it has been disturbed by gravitational interaction with it.

  Observationally all four galaxies NGC 4294, 4299, 4313 and 4330 should fit in the same field of view of a medium power hyper wide field (100 degree field) eyepiece. For those with larger telescopes it may be possible to pick up the very much fainter galaxy IC 3209 near NGC 4313. IC3209 was discovered visually by Frost using a 24" refractor so it should be visible to observers with dark skies and a 20" telescope. It may also be picked up by those using electronic assistance.

  Interestingly NGC 4330 is not mentioned in either the NSOG or L&S so a new challenge out there.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director

• March 2011 - Galaxy of the Month

  NGC4216 in Virgo

  

  This image is courtesy of Johannes Schedler, Panther Observatory in Austria. Click on image for a larger version. We also provide a high resolution finder chart.

  In order to try and revitalize interest in the Galaxy Section I have decided to try and post a Galaxy of the Month target. Observations both electronic and visual are encouraged of the object to be submitted either to the Galaxy Section Director, the Editor of DSO or on the Yahoo group. The challenges will vary between those visible for both new observers and those with larger instruments. Given that we are starting in February/March I thought I would start with an object from the Virgo cluster of galaxies and to go for a 3 in one challenge.

  NGC 4216 is a bright (10.1 mag) edge on spiral galaxy classified as SBb which appears to be part of a small group of galaxies involved in the main Virgo cluster.

  Through small telescopes you can see the core of the galaxy but as you move up in aperture not only does more detail appear in the galaxy itself, including the dust lane cutting across but also the neighbouring edge on spiral galaxies NGC 4206 and NGC 4222.

  I remember coming across this group by accident when observing with Stewart Moore and a 24" in Tenerife and failing to identify it. We had got lost in Virgo by that time!!. For observers with very large telescopes there is also the small galaxy CGCG 69-113 in the same field.

  There is a fine deep image of this galaxy showing the star streams from its merger with several smaller galaxies on the NASA APOD site and also a very nice image at Johannes Schedler's Panther Observatory website.

  NGC 4216 is of interest as it appears to be blue shifted because due to its internal motion within the Virgo cluster. The galaxy itself is about 40 million light years away and is suspected to be a barred spiral galaxy but these classifications are always difficult when the galaxy is so edge on. NGC 4216 was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 and assigned by him to his class 1 objects.

  Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director