| Abstract | Panagia et al. (1991) have measured the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, D_LMC_ = 50.1 +/-3.1 kpc from the fluorescence of the ring around SN 1987A, which was assumed to be circular. I recalculate D_LMC_ using the supernova-ring method and the data of Panagia et al. both with and without the assumption that the ring is circular. For a circular ring, I find D_LMC_ = 53.2 +/- 2.6 kpc, 3 kpc larger than the result of Panagia et al. For a ring of intrinsic eccentricity e the distance is smaller than for a circular ring by a fraction ~0.4e^4^, i.e., only 1% for e = 0.4. |
