We present UBVRIJHK photometry and optical spectroscopy of the so-called
'peculiar' Type Ia supernova 1999by in NGC 2841. The observations began one
week before visual maximum light which is well-defined by daily observations.
The light curves and spectra are similar to those of the prototypical
subluminous event SN 1991bg. We find that maximum light in B occurred on 1999
May 10.3 UT (JD 2,451,308.8 +/- 0.3) with B=13.66 +/- 0.02 mag and a color of
B_max-V_max=0.51 +/- 0.03 mag. The late-time color implies minimal dust
extinction from the host galaxy. Our photometry, when combined with the recent
Cepheid distance to NGC 2841 (Macri et al. 2001), gives a peak absolute
magnitude of M_B=-17.15 +/- 0.23 mag, making SN 1999by one of the least
luminous Type Ia events ever observed. We estimate a decline rate parameter of
dm15(B)=1.90 mag, versus 1.93 for SN 1991bg, where 1.10 is typical for
so-called 'normal' events. We compare SN 1999by with other subluminous events
and find that the B_max-V_max color correlates strongly with the decline rate
and may be a more sensitive indicator of luminosity than the fading rate for
these objects. We find a good correlation between luminosity and the depth of
the spectral feature at 580 nm, which had been attributed solely to Si II. We
show that in cooler photospheres the 580 nm feature is dominated by Ti II,
which provides a simple physical explanation for the correlation. Using only
subluminous Type Ia supernovae we derive a Hubble parameter of H_0=75 +12 -11
km/s Mpc, consistent with values found from brighter events.Comment: 36 preprint pages including 18 figures. Near-IR photometry of the SN
has been added to the paper. Scheduled to appear in ApJ vol. 613 (September
2004). High-resolution version available from
http://www.nd.edu/~pgarnavi/sn99by/sn99by.p
