ИСТИНА

We present a sample of 66 galaxies belonging to the equatorial part (Dec.= –7◦, +7◦) of the large so called Eridanus void. Our main goal was to study systematically the evolutionary parameters of the void sample (metallicity and gas content) and to compare the void galaxy properties with their counterparts residing in denser environments. Besides the general galaxy parameters, compiled mainly from the literature, we present the results of the dedicated observations to measure the oxygen abundance O/H in HII-regions of void galaxies with the 11-m SALT telescope (SAAO) and the 6-m telescope BTA (SAO), as well as the O/H estimates derived from the analysis of the SDSS DR7 spectra. We analyzed our data in relation to galaxy luminosity (log(O/H) versus MB). Comparing them with the ‘reference’ sample of similar type galaxies from the Local Volume, we find a clear evidence for the substantially lower average metallicity of the Eridanus void galaxies. This result well matches the conclusions of our recent similar study for galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void.