The Abundance Gradient of NGC 1365: Evidence for a Recently Formed Bar in an Archetype Barred Spiral Galaxy?

Emission-line optical spectrophotometry for 55 H II regions in the prominent southern barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is presented. Nebular diagnostic diagrams such as [N II]/[O II] and [S II]/[O II] versus [O II]/{O III] show that the H II regions of the barred galaxy have the same range of physical conditions as found in non-barred late-type galaxies. Extinction is moderately high across the disc and there is evidence for a slight trend of extinction with galactocentric distance; the logarithmic extinction at H-beta falls from about c = 1.2 in the centre to 0.6 -- 0.8 in the outer regions. The global O/H distribution has a moderate gradient of about -0.5 dex/rho0 (about -0.02 dex/kpc) consistent with the known trend between the slope of the abundance gradient and the strength of the bar. A break is seen in the O/H gradient just beyond the -4/1 resonance, the gradient being moderately steep at about -0.8 dex/rho0 (-0.05 dex/kpc) inside this resonance, and flat beyond rho/rho0 > 0.55. The abundance distribution is compared with another barred spiral galaxy, NGC 3359, and with that of two well-sampled normal spiral galaxies, NGC 2997 and M 101. The possibility that the bar formed recently in NGC 1365 is considered. The difficulties encountered in doing spectrophotometry with fibre optics are discussed and shown not to be insurmountable.