Presenter: Mikaela Cowles
Authors: Mikaela Cowles, Joseph Jensen
Faculty Advisor: Joseph Jensen
Institution: Utah Valley University
We observed 67 galaxies within 130-260 million light-years (40-80 Mpc) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We are able to get enough data in a single HST orbit to measure the surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distances to our survey galaxies to 5% accuracy out to 260 light-years. By using the SNAP observing strategy we have been able to obtain good coverage of a sample of 67 early-type galaxies in the Perseus-Pisces and the Pavo-Indus galaxy clusters. We are currently preparing our data to be used for SBF distance measurements which will yield information on the motions of our target galaxies and their masses. SBF distances can also be used to calculate the Hubble constant with results comparable in accuracy to other methods like supernovae.