Planetary nebulae in galaxies beyond the Local Group.

Planetary nebulae can be used to estimate the distances to galaxies and to measure stellar dynamics in faint halos. The authors discuss surveys which have netted a total of 665 candidate planetary nebulae in NGC 5128 (Cen A), NGC 5102, NGC 3031 (M81), NGC 3115, three galaxies in the Leo Group (NGC 3379, NGC 3384, NGC 3377), NGC 5866, and finally, in NGC 4486 (M87). The highly consistent distances derived from the brightnesses of the j^th nebula and the median nebula in different fields in the same galaxy and from different galaxies in the same group lend strong support to the suggestion that planetaries are an accurate standard candle in old stellar populations. Comparison of theoretical luminosity functions to be observed PNLFs shows that there is a very small dispersion in the central star masses.