A tiny Galactic dust cloud projected onto NGC 3269?

Abstract

We report on new observations obtained with the Magellan Clay-telescope of a tiny dust patch in the Sa-galaxy NGC 3269 in the Antlia galaxy cluster. It has already been suspected to be a projected Galactic foreground cloud. In this case a size of about 4 arcsec and a maximum absorption of ~1 mag in the B-band would make it unique so far. We present further evidence for its Galactic nature from imaging under excellent seeing conditions (0.3-0.6 arcsec). This dust cloud could be the first optically identified counterpart of a new type of molecular cloud recently discovered by Heithausen (2004).

Accepted for publication in AJ. 10 pages, 3 figures