| Abstract | Surface photometry of dwarf elliptical (dE) galaxies is used to extract photometric parameters that can be used as relative distance indicators between the Virgo, Fornax, and Centaurus clusters. A sample of objects is selected with uniform profile shape (i.e. exponential) and simple fits are made to derive central surface brightness, characteristic scale length, and total magnitude. Our selection criteria yields a sample ~25 dE galaxies in each cluster. The outstanding property of each cluster dE sample is the small dispersion around a mean angular scale length. Differences in the mean scale length can then be used to derive relative cluster distances. Using Virgo as the fiducial cluster, we derive R_Fornax_/R_Virgo_ = 0.93 +/- 0.07 and R_Centaurus_/R_Virgo_ = 1.91 +/- 0.07. These results are in good agreement with the relative cluster distances derived by Aaronson et at. using the infrared Tully-Fisher relation. However, the use of dEs produces distance estimates with considerably smaller error bars. In the case of Virgo, dividing the sample into two groups of dEs centered on M87 and NGC 4472 suggests that M87 is located behind NGC 4472. In the case of Centaurus, we find no evidence for the presence of two components separated in distance. If the distance to the Virgo cluster is 15 Mpc, then, using the relative Centaurus-Virgo distance derived here, we determine a mean peculiar velocity of 410 +/- 105 km s^-1^ for the Centaurus cluster. |
