We have obtained spectra of HII regions in the heavily obscured spiral galaxy Maffei 2 .
The observations have allowed for a determination of the Galactic extinction of this galaxy using a correlation between extinction and hydrogen column density observed among spirals .
The technique reveals that the optical depth of Galactic dust at 1 \mu m obscuring Maffei 2 is \tau _ { 1 } = 2.017 \pm 0.211 , which implies that A _ { V } = 5.58 \pm 0.58 mag , significantly higher than observed for the giant elliptical Maffei 1 despite its similar latitude .
For comparison , we apply the same technique to IC 342 , a neighbouring spiral to Maffei 2 but with more moderate obscuration by Galactic dust , owing to its higher Galactic latitude .
For this galaxy , we obtain \tau _ { 1 } = 0.692 \pm 0.066 , which agrees within errors with the value of 0.639 \pm 0.102 derived from the reddening estimate of Schlegel et al .
( 56 ) .
We therefore adopt the weighted mean of \tau _ { 1 } = 0.677 \pm 0.056 for the extinction of IC 342 , which implies that A _ { V } = 1.92 \pm 0.16 mag .
A new distance estimate for Maffei 2 of 3.34 \pm 0.56 Mpc is obtained from a self-consistent Tully-Fisher relation in I adjusted to the NGC 4258 maser zero-point .
With our new measurement of M _ { I } , Maffei 2 joins Maffei 1 and IC 342 as one of three giant members of the nearby IC 342/Maffei group of galaxies .
We present the revised properties of all three galaxies based on the most accurate extinction and distance estimates to date , accounting for shifts in the effective wavelengths of broadband filters as this effect can be significant for highly reddened galaxies .
The revised distances are consistent with what would be suspected for the Hubble Flow , making it highly unlikely that the galaxies interacted with the Local Group since the Big Bang .