26. Conclusions
The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) method is as precise and as
accurate as the Cepheid PL relation. Moreover, an extremely useful
feature of the TRGB method is that it is applicable to any galaxy
containing a detectable population of old, metal-poor, low-mass stars.
In practice, this means that nearly all nearby galaxies, regardless of
Hubble type and/or inclination, can now be placed on a common distance
scale out to the crowding and the flux limits of CCD detectors and
telescopes. These distances will allow, for the first time, a
complete sample of accurate, uniformly-measured distances to all
galaxies within the Local Group and out to distances of ~ 10 Mpc.