NGC 4217 - Galaxy
This galaxy with the catalog number NGC 4217 was discovered in April 1788 by none other than F.W. Herschel. With a brightness
of 11.3 mag and an apparent size of 5.2'x1.5', it is located 58 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (CVn) and
is best seen in spring.
NGC 4217 belongs to the group of spiral galaxies of the Hubble Type “Sb”. It has a diameter of 75,000 light-years, making it slightly
smaller than our Milky Way. We see the galaxy from the side, which is why NGC 4217 is called an “edge-on galaxy.” Its luminosity
is 16 billion suns, which corresponds to an absolute magnitude of M= -19.6mag. The galaxy is moving away from us at a speed of
v= 1020km/s.
To the east of NGC 4217 is another smaller galaxy (NGC 4226), which is significantly further away at 330 million light-years.
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In my 20" telescope, NGC 4217 appears quite bright and is even beautiful to look at at low magnification.
Things become really interesting at magnifications of 210...270x. It is noticeable that the northwestern side of the galaxy appears a little brighter.
The dust lane can be seen with averted vision, but is not super noticeable. The core area also appears significantly bright and elongated. No
stellar nucleus is visible in the center.
The small galaxy NGC 4226 was easy to spot at 270x and appeared oval with an elongation of 3:1. The core area was brighter.
