The Young Stellar Population of NGC 4214 as Observed with the Hubble Space Telescope . I. Data and Methods

Abstract

We present the data and methods that we have used to perform a detailedUV-optical study of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 4214 usingmultifilter Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 and STIS photometry. We explainthe process followed to obtain high-quality photometry and astrometry ofthe stellar and cluster populations of this galaxy. We describe theprocedure used to transform magnitudes and colors into physicalparameters using spectral energy distributions. The data show theexistence of both young and old stellar populations that can be resolvedat the distance of NGC 4214 (2.94 Mpc), and we perform a generaldescription of those populations.Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated bythe Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., underNASA contract NAS 5-26555.