Variations of the Selective Extinction Across the Galactic Bulge - Implications for the Galactic Bar

We propose a new method to investigate the coefficient of the selective extinction, based on two band photometry. This method uses red clump stars as a means to construct the reddening curve. We apply this method to the OGLE color-magnitude diagrams to investigate the variations of the selective extinction towards various parts of the Galactic bulge. We find that $A_{_V}/E_{_{V-I}}$ coefficient is within the errors the same for $l=\pm 5\deg$ OGLE fields. Therefore, the difference of $\sim 0.37\;mag$ in the extinction adjusted apparent magnitude of the red clump stars in these fields (Stanek et al.~1994, 1995) cannot be assigned to a large-scale gradient of the selective extinction coefficient. This strengthens the implication of this difference as indicator of the presence of the bar in our Galaxy. However using present data we cannot entirely exclude the possibility of $\sim 0.2\;mag/mag$ variations of the selective extinction coefficient on the large scales across the bulge.Comment: submitted to ApJ Letters, 10 pages, gziped PostScript with figures included; also available through WWW at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~library/prep.htm

Has Blending Compromised Cepheid-Based Determinations of the Extragalactic Distance Scale?

We examine the suggestion that half of the HST Key Project- and Sandage/Saha-observed galaxies have had their distances systematically underestimated, by 0.1-0.3 mag in the distance modulus, due to the underappreciated influence of stellar profile blending on the WFC chips. The signature of such an effect would be a systematic trend in (i) the Type Ia supernovae corrected peak luminosity and (ii) the Tully-Fisher residuals, with increasing calibrator distance, and (iii) a differential offset between PC and WFC distance moduli, within the same galaxy. The absence of a trend would be expected if blending were negligible (as has been inherently assumed in the analyses of the aforementioned teams). We adopt a functional form for the predicted influence of blending that is consistent with the models of Mochejska et al. and Stanek & Udalski, and demonstrate that the expected correlation with distance predicted by these studies is not supported by the data. We conclude that the Cepheid-based extragalactic distance scale has not been severely compromised by the neglect of blending.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, LaTeX, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, also available at http://casa.colorado.edu/~bgibson/publications.htm

The Zero Point of Extinction Toward Baade's Window

We measure the zero point of the Stanek (1996) extinction map by comparing the observed (V-K) colors of 206 K giant stars with their intrinsic (V-K)_0 colors as derived from their H\beta indices. We find that the zero point of the Stanek map should be changed by \Delta A_V = -0.10 +/- 0.06 mag, obtaining as a bonus a three-fold reduction of the previous statistical error. The most direct way to test for systematic errors in this determination would be to conduct a parallel measurement based on the (V-K) colors of RR Lyraes (type ab).Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

The Ratio of Total to Selective Extinction Toward Baade's Window

We measure the ratio of total to selective extinction, R_{VI}=A_V/E(V-I), toward Baade's Window by comparing the VIK colors of 132 Baade's Window G and K giants from Tiede, Frogel, & Terndrup with the solar-neighborhood (V-I),(V-K) relation from Bessell & Brett. We find R_{VI}=2.283 +/- 0.016, and show that our measurement has no significant dependence on stellar type from G0 to K4. Adjusting the Paczynski et al. determination of the centroid of the dereddened Baade's Window clump for this revised value of $R_{VI}$, we find I_{0,RC}=14.43 and (V-I)_{0,RC}=1.058. This implies a distance to the Baade's Window clump of d_{BW} = 8.63 +/- 0.16 kpc, where the error bar takes account of statistical but not systematic uncertainties.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Ap

Extinction Map of Baade's Window

Recently Wo\'zniak \& Stanek (1996) proposed a new method to investigate interstellar extinction, based on two band photometry, which uses red clump stars as a means to construct the reddening curve. I apply this method to the color-magnitude diagrams obtained by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) to construct an extinction map of $(40')^2$ region of Baade's Window, with resolution of $\sim30\;arcsec$. Such a map should be useful for studies of this frequently observed region of the Galactic bulge. The map and software useful for its applications are available via {\tt anonymous ftp}. The total extinction $A_V$ varies from $1.26\;mag$ to $2.79\;mag$ within the $(40')^2$ field of view centered on $(\alpha_{2000}, \delta_{2000}) =$ (18:03:20.9,--30:02:06), i.e. $(l,b)=(1.001,-3.885)$. The ratio $A_V/E(V-I) = 2.49\pm0.02$ is determined with this new method.Comment: revised version accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 8 pages, uuencoded PostScript with 4 figures included; complete paper available through WWW at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~library/prep.html; tables and auxiliary software available at ftp://www.astro.princeton.edu/stanek/Extinctio