Abstract

We present an analysis of Hubble Space Telescope/WFPC2 images of eighteen galaxies in the Canes Venatici I cloud. We derive their distances from the luminosity of the tip of the red giant branch stars with a typical accuracy of ? 12%. The resulting distances are 3.9 Mpc (UGC 6541), 4.9 Mpc (NGC 3738), 3.0 Mpc (NGC 3741), 4.5 Mpc (KK 109), >6.3 Mpc (NGC 4150), 4.2 Mpc (UGC 7298), 4.5 Mpc (NGC 4244), 4.6 Mpc (NGC 4395), 4.9 Mpc (UGC 7559), 4.2 Mpc (NGC 4449), 4.4 Mpc (UGC 7605), 4.6 Mpc (IC 3687), 4.7 Mpc (KK 166), 4.7 Mpc (NGC 4736), 4.2 Mpc (UGC 8308), 4.3 Mpc (UGC 8320), 4.6 Mpc (NGC 5204), and 3.2 Mpc (UGC 8833). The CVnI cloud has a mean radial velocity of 286 ± 9 km s-1, a mean distance of 4.1 ± 0.2 Mpc, a radial velocity dispersion of 50 km s-1, a mean projected radius of 760 kpc, and a total blue luminosity of 2.2 × 1010L?. Assuming virial or closed orbital motions for the galaxies, we estimated their virial and their orbital mass-to-luminosity ratio to be 176 and 88 M?/L?, respectively. However, the CVnI cloud is characterized by a crossing time of 15 Gyr, and is thus far from a state of dynamical equilibrium. The large crossing time for the cloud, its low content of dSph galaxies (<6%), and the almost "primordial" shape of its luminosity function show that the CVn I complex is in a transient dynamical state, driven rather by the free Hubble expansion than by galaxy interactions.