Distances to the farther stars
• Parallax only works for nearby stars
• Spectroscopic “Parallax” works somewhat further out
– Measure spectra and get Spectral Type and Luminosity Class
– From those get Luminosity and then use m-M to find distance
– Limited because need relatively bright stars to get high resolution
spectra
• Need another way to find M, then use m-M to get distances
• Variable stars and the Period-Luminosity relationship:
– Some stars vary in intrinsic brightness with time
– The larger, more massive,  and brighter stars vary more slowly
• Like the relative pitch of a large vs. small organ pipe