The dwarf spheroidal galaxy DDO 44: stellar populations and distance ?

We have ground-based and HST WFPC2 imaging of the nearby low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal galaxy DDO 44. For the first time DDO 44 was resolved into stars. The resulting color-magnitude diagram for about 1290 stars show the red giant branch with a tip at I =2 3:55 0:15, which yields the distance DMW =3 :2 0:2 Mpc consistent with membership of DDO 44 in the NGC 2403 group. The linear separation of DDO 44 from NGC 2403 is 75 kpc on the sky and 30450 kpc along the line of sight. The relationship between the dwarf galaxy's absolute magnitude, M o R = 13:1, the central surface brightness, R (0) =2 4:1 mag arcsec 2 , and the mean metallicity, (Fe/H) = 1.7 dex follow the trend for other nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies. One globular cluster candidate has also been identified in DDO 44.