Measuring Improved Distances to Nearby Galaxies: The Araucaria Project

An intense use of ESO telescopes over the past years has allowed us to make significant improvements in the characterization of stellar populations, and in the determination of the distances of nearby galaxies. We report on recent progress on the use of Cepheid variables and blue supergiant stars for the accurate measurement of galaxy distances. This work will finally lead to a significant reduction of the uncertainty on the Hubble constant, which measures the current rate of expansion of the Universe.