On the distance to nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 1569

Abstract

We present stellar photometry of two HST/WFPC2 fields situated at the far periphery of the poststarburst galaxy NGC 1569. Their F606W and F814W images have been taken from the HST data archive. Judging by the obtained color-magnitude diagrams, we suggest the presence of the old disk population (old red giants) of NGC 1569, which extends as far as Field I at ∼6 kpc from the galaxy center. We use the tip of the red giant branch to estimate the galaxy distance. There are two possible solutions, one leading to a short distance, D - 1.95 ± 0.2 Mpc, and the other to a longer distance, D - 2.8 ± 0.2 Mpc.