Related papers: Galactic and Extragalactic Distance Scales: The Va…

We have conducted a large-scale survey of the northern plane using Kiso Wide Field Camera attached to Schmidt telescope at Kiso observatory. The KISOGP (KWFC Intensive Survey of the Galactic Plane) project have made 40-70 epoch observations…

The relationship between the integrated H$\beta$ line luminosity and the velocity dispersion of the ionized gas of HII galaxies and giant HII regions represents an exciting standard candle that presently can be used up to redshifts…

The Hubble Space Telescope is being used to measure accurate Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies with the ultimate aim of determining the Hubble constant, H_0. For the first time, it has become feasible to use Cepheid variables to derive a…

The present status of our knowledge of the distances to the Magellanic Clouds is evaluated from a post-Hipparcos perspective. After a brief summary of the effects of structure, reddening, age and metallicity, the primary distance indicators…

We present some results of long term studies of pulsating stars conducted in the course of the OGLE and Araucaria projects. In particular very scarce eclipsing binaries containing pulsating stars are discussed. Such systems provide a unique…

Four Hubble diagrams are combined to test for the linearity of the cosmic expansion field. The expansion rate, H_0, is found to decrease by ~5% out to 18000km/s. Beyond this distance the mean value of H_0 is close to the value at 10000km/s.…

Population-II pulsating stars provide a route to extragalactic distances that is independent of the classical Cepheid distance scale and complementary to geometric and tip-of-the-red-giant-branch (TRGB) methods. We apply optical Wesenheit…

DIRECT is a project to obtain directly the distances to two Local Group galaxies, M31 and M33, which occupy a crucial position near the bottom of the cosmological distance ladder. As the first step of the DIRECT project we have searched for…

We report the discovery of RV Tauri stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In light and colour curve behaviour, the RV Tauri stars appear to be a direct extension of the type II Cepheids to longer periods. A single period- luminosity-colour…

This research paper aims to compare different methods for calculating the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (\textit{LMC}). The distance, $d_{LMC}$, is determined using stellar parallax, variable stars (RR Lyrae and Classical…

We have performed a photometric V, R, I CCD time-series analysis with a baseline of ~8 years of the outer-halo globular cluster NGC 7492 with the aim of searching for new variables and using these (and the previously known variables) to…

We present a census of variable stars in six M31 dwarf spheroidal satellites observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. We detect 870 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in the fields of And I (296), II (251), III (111), XV (117), XVI (8), XXVIII (87). We…

We present a new search for variable stars in the Galactic globular cluster M28 (NGC 6626). The search is based on a series of BVI images obtained with the SMARTS Consortium's 1.3m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,…

We report the detection of variable stars within a 11.5' x 11.5' region near the Galactic centre (GC) that includes the Arches and Quintuplet clusters, as revealed by the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) survey. There are 353 sources…

We matched the astrometry of central stars (CSs) of spectroscopically-confirmed Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) with DR2 Gaia parallaxes ($p$), finding 430 targets in common with $p>0$ and $|\sigma_{\rm p}/p|<1$. A catalog of PNe whose CSs…

The Galactic bulge and bar are critical to our understanding of the Milky Way. However, due to the lack of reliable stellar distances, the structure and kinematics of the bulge/bar beyond the Galactic center have remained largely…

We present the OGLE collection of delta Scuti stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud and in its foreground. Our dataset encompasses a total of 15 256 objects, constituting the largest sample of extragalactic delta Sct stars published so far.…

Variable OH/IR stars are Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars with an optically thick circumstellar envelope that emit strong OH 1612 MHz emission. They are commonly observed throughout the Galaxy but also in the LMC and SMC. Hence, the…

A VI Wesenheit diagram featuring SX Phoenicis, delta Scuti, RR Lyrae, type II and classical Cepheid variables is calibrated by means of geometric-based distances inferred from HST, Hipparcos, and VLBA observations (n=30). The distance to a…

A long-term project, aiming at systematic search for variable stars in Galactic Open Clusters, was started at the Geneva Observatory in 2002. We have been observing regularly a sample of twenty-seven Galactic Open Clusters in the U, B, V…