2000A&A...361...68M

From theoretical predictions, the introduction of 8-m class telescopes permits one to extend Surface Brightness Fluctuations measurements from the ground to ≃7000 km/s, with a precision that is comparable to current space-based measure ments. We have measured I-band SBF in IC 4296 in Abell 3565 at cz∼3630km/s with the ESO Very Large Telescope. Adopting the Tonry et al. (2000) calibration for I-band SBF we determined a distance modulus of (<I>_o,k-<M>_I)=33.44±0.17mag corresponding to a galaxy distance of 49±4Mpc. This result is consistent with the HST observation from Lauer et al. (1998ApJ...499..577L): (<I>_F814-<M>_F814)=33.47±0.13mag.