THE EXTRAGALACTIC DISTANCE SCALE WITHOUT CEPHEIDS

Distances of galaxies in the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project are based on the Cepheid period-luminosity relation. An alternative basis is the tip of the red giant branch. Using archival HST data, we calibrate the infrared Tully-Fisher relation using 14 galaxies with tip of the red giant branch measurements. Compared with the Key Project, a higher value of the Hubble constant by 10% +/- 7% is inferred. Within the errors the two distance scales are therefore consistent. We describe the additional data required for a conclusive tip of the red giant branch measurement of H(0).