| Abstract | The distance to NGC 3982, host galaxy to the Type Ia supernova SN 1998aq, is derived using 32 Cepheids discovered in archival multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope observations. Employing recent Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid period-luminosity relations and absolute zero-point, we find a distance to NGC 3982 of [formmu3]20.5+/-0.8 (r) +/-1.7 (s)Mpc, including both random (r) and systematic (s) uncertainties, and ignoring any metallicity dependence in the Cepheid period-luminosity relation. Still unpublished light curve photometry promises to make SN 1998aq one of the most important calibrators for the Type Ia supernova decline rate-peak luminosity relationship. |
