Distances to Local Group Galaxies

Abstract

Distances to galaxies in the Local Group are reviewed. In particular, the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud is found to be $(m-M)_0 = 18.52 \pm 0.10$, corresponding to $50,600 \pm 2,400$ pc. The importance of M31 as an analog of the galaxies observed at greater distances is stressed, while the variety of star formation and chemical enrichment histories displayed by Local Group galaxies allows critical evaluation of the calibrations of the various distance indicators in a variety of environments.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, to appear in "Stellar Candles for the Extragalactic Distance Scale", Lecture Notes in Physics (Springer), ed. D. Alloin and W. Giere