SN 1994D in NGC 4526: a normally bright type Ia supernova

SN 1994D of type Ia has been suspected not to fit into the relation between decline rate, colour, and brightness. However, an individual distance of i ts host galaxy, NGC 4526, other than that of the Virgo cluster, has not yet been published. We determined the distance by the method of globular clust er luminosity functions on the basis of HST archive data. A maximum-likelih ood fit returns apparent turn-over magnitudes of 23.16 +/- 0.16 mag in V an d 21.96 +/- 0.09 mag in I. The corresponding distance modulus is 30.4 +/- 0 .3 mag, where the error reflects our estimation of the absolute distance sc ale. The absolute magnitudes (not corrected for decline rate and colour) ar e -18.67 +/- 0.30 mag, -18.62 +/- 0.30 mag, and -18.40 +/- 0.30 mag for B, V, and I, respectively. The corrected magnitudes are -18.69 +/- 0.31 mag, - 18.69 +/- 0.31 mag, and -18.44 +/- 0.31 mag. Compared with other supernovae with reliably determined distances, SN 1994D fits within the errors. It is therefore not a counter-example against a un iform decline-rate-colour-brightness relation.