Collaborative Project: Independently Determined Distances to the Magellanic Clouds. Dr. Moffett, in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Barnes at the University of Texas, will carry out an observational project to determine distances to the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds by means of the surface brightness technique applied to Cepheid variable stars. Existing and new photometric data will be combined with existing high quality radial velocities in a surface brightness analysis to obtain individual distances and radii for all twenty two extragalactic Cepheids. These individual distances will establish mean distances to the Magellanic Clouds independent of other astrophysical distance scales and independent of the interstellar reddening of these Cepheids.
