A DISTANCE TO THE CEPHEID HV-829 IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD

We present a distance determination to the Cepheid variable HV 829 in the Small Magellanic Cloud using the surface brightness technique. The distance so obtained is independent of any other astrophysical distance scale; in particular, it is independent of the Cepheid PL (and PLC) relations. It is also independent of any assumptions concerning reddening in the SMC. The distance obtained to HV 829 is 61 +/- 6 kpc, which corresponds to a distance modulus of 18.9 +/- 0.2 mag. Because HV 829 may not lie at the centroid distance for the SMC, this may not be representative of the mean distance to the SMC, but it does provide additional evidence for the ''long distance scale'' for the SMC.