| Abstract | We have studied the light curves of 48 variable stars in a 0.9^deg^ x 0.9^deg^ region centered at RA = 05^h^10^m^, Dec = -68.9^deg^ (region 1) near NGC 1854 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Using seven plates of the LMC taken in 1967-1972 with the Pulkovo 70-cm Maksutov telescope in Chile, and seven more taken in 1988 with the 66-cm astrograph at Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Australia, we have improved the Cepheid periods and detected possible period variations by comparing our results with observations published by Payne-Gaposchkin (1971) that were taken in the first half of this century. We determined the period- apparent magnitude relation for Cepheids in the LMC, estimating interstellar absorption by means of nearby clusters: =(-2.052+/-0.128)logP+(16.745+/-0.117). Making use of Kraft's (1961) period-luminosity relation for Galactic Cepheids, we obtain for the distance modulus to the LMC m-M= 18.08^m^ +/- 0.14. |
