2002BaltA..11..385F

Using the Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) method by Tonry & Schneider (1988) the distance to the galaxy NGC 3379 in the Leo I group was determined. Applying new written software to the high-signal-to-noise ESO NTT Kron-Cousins I passband archive data, a smooth galaxy model was calculated where unwanted point sources, such as foreground stars, globular clusters as well as background galaxies were taken into account when determining the fluctuation magnitudes. Taking the measured fluctuations together with a well defined mean absolute magnitude calibration into account, the distance modulus of NGC 3379 was derived. A comparison of our result with the SBF distance moduli found in the literature shows good agreement.