Calibration of the Classical Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation from Hipparcos Data

The calibration of the classical Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation is a fundamental step for the determination of the cosmic distance scale. In this paper a calibration obtained from Hipparcos data is presented and used to estimate the LMC distance modulus. A value of 18.35^m ± 0.13 is obtained. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.