Distance to the galaxy IC 342
  Based on archival Hubble Space Telescope images, we have performed stellar
photometry for a region of the spiral galaxy IC 342 located in the Milky Way
zone. On the constructed Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, we have identified the
red giant branch and determined the distance modulus for the galaxy by the TRGB
(tip of the red giant branch) method, (m - M) = 27.97+/-0.10, which corresponds
to D = 3.93+/-0.10 Mpc. The estimated distance puts IC 342 spatially close to
the galaxy Maffei 1 (D = 4.1 Mpc) and allows these galaxies to be considered
the center of a single group.
