| Abstract | The brightest red and blue supergiants in the nearby, highly resolved Im IV-V galaxy WLM have been identified and photometered relative to a photoelectric sequence measured to V = 18.6, B = 19.5. The sequence is extended to V = 22, B = 23. The mean magnitudes for the three brightest blue and red supergiants are = 17.74 (or 17.69 depending on membership) for the blue stars, and = 17.88 for the red stars. Periods and light curves have been determined for 15 Cepheids. All periods are less than 10 days. A special effort was made to find longer-period Cepheids but without success. The color-magnitude diagram of WLM shows progenitor main-sequence stars to exist brighter than the luminosity interval that is necessary to produce such longer-period Cepheids. The absence of such variables is discussed. The distance modulus from the Cepheid P-L relation is (m-M)AB = 24.93. The bright-star calibrations are consistent with, and add to, the existing M(star) = f[M(galaxy)] correlations obtained from other nearby galaxies with Cepheid distances. |
