Charting the neighbourhood

Abstract

We present Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) distances of fifteen early-type dwarf galaxies and the S0 galaxy NGC 4150 in the Local Volume based on deep B- and R-band CCD images obtained with the 2.56 metre Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT). Distances have been determined from Fourier analysed fields selected from optimal locations on the galaxies. Distances were found to range from 3 to 16 Mpc. The SBF method has been demonstrated to efficiently measure relatively accurate distances from the ground with mid-aperture telescopes. The SBF method to measure distances to dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies has also been empirically calibrated using three dEs with known tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) distances.