| Dr Tim Harries (Exeter) |
| 20th March 2002 |
| The Royal Road to the Small Magellanic Cloud |
| Eclipsing binaries are attractive distance indicators for Local Group galaxies, but the dual demands of high precision photometry and spectroscopy generally renders them observationally expensive to exploit. I report the first results of a study of eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud using 2dF multiplexed spectroscopy and OGLE photometry. The programme not only yields an accurate distance to the SMC, but also provides a valuable database of fundamental parameters of massive, low-metallicity stars. |
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