Wide-field Imaging of the Environments of LITTLE THINGS Dwarf Irregular Galaxies

We have obtained wide-field images of 36 of the 41 LITTLE THINGS (Local Irregulars That Trace Luminosity Extremes, The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey) nearby (< 10.3 Mpc) dwarf irregular and blue compact dwarf galaxies. Although the LITTLE THINGS galaxies were chosen to be non-interacting and no companions were found in H I imaging, the purpose of this imaging was to search for optical companion galaxies that had been missed in imaging with smaller fields of view and that might indicate an external factor in ongoing star formation. The limiting magnitudes of the images range from 19.7 to 28.3 mag arcsec(-2), with a median value of 25.9 mag arcsec(-2). We did not find any unknown companions. Two of the LITTLE THINGS galaxies, NGC 4163 and NGC 4214, and the fainter dwarf, UGCA 276, lie potentially within 100 kpc of each other, but our imaging does not reveal any stellar bridge between the galaxies. This project was part of the Lowell Amateur Research Initiative.