This is a project of fundamental research on the extragalactic distance scale by one of the leaders in this field. Using the latest available instrumentation, the properties of Cepheid variable stars will be studied both in our galaxy and in several nearby systems. This will more than double the number of galaxies which have reddening corrected distance moduli. It is these calibrated galaxies which are used in the classical determination of the Hubble constant which in turn measures the scale of the universe in both distance and time.
