Description
We identify and phase a sample of 107 Cepheids with 10days<P<100days in M81 (NGC 3031) using the Large Binocular Telescope and calibrate their B, V, and I mean magnitudes with archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data. The use of a ground-based telescope to identify and phase the Cepheids and HST only for the final calibration reduces the demand on this highly oversubscribed spacecraft by nearly an order of magnitude and yields period-luminosity (PL) relations with dispersions comparable to the best LMC samples. We fit the sample using the OGLE-II LMC PL relations and are unable to find a self-consistent distance for different band combinations or radial locations within M81. We find a distance modulus for M81, relative to the LMC, of {mu}M_81_-{mu}_LMC_=9.39+/-0.14mag, including uncertainties due to the metallicity corrections. This corresponds to a distance to M81 of 3.6+/-0.2Mpc, assuming an LMC distance modulus of 18.41mag.
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