Program: GN-2019B-FT-204

The IC342/Maffei group is usually considered as the closest galaxy group (at ~3 Mpc), but its unfortunate low Galactic latitude has precluded in-depth studies, and multiple values for its distance have been given. Recently, new distance measurements put Maffei 1 and 2 at ~6Mpc, roughly twice the currently accepted distance of ~3Mpc. This discrepancy is important to resolve because it would imply that the group is in fact two non-gravitationally bounds components, with IC342 in the foreground. We propose the measurement of radial velocities for 10 globular cluster candidates in Maffei 1. These are resolved with ground-based imaging, and therefore are inconsistent with being 6 Mpc away. The detection of the CaT in any of these clusters will immediately mean Maffei 1 has to be at the shorter distance of about 3 Mpc from us. The confirmation of bonafide star clusters in Maffei 1 would additionally allow us to study the dark matter content on this galaxy for the first time.