TESTS OF THE LONG AND SHORT EXTRAGALACTIC DISTANCE SCALES

Distances on the short and long scales of 12 nearby galaxies, one grou p, and three clusters are compared with recent estimates by independen t methods and researchers. All comparisons show a close agreement [wit hin 0.3 magnitude (mag) in the distance modulus (DM)] between the shor t-scale moduli and the new estimates by others at all distances from t he Large Magellanic Cloud [DELTA (distance) = 0.05 megaparsec (Mpc); 1 pc = 3.09 x 10(16)m] to the Coma cluster (DELTA = 83 Mpc). The mean s ystematic difference (short - others) is only -0.04 mag with no eviden ce for a significant Malmquist bias in the short scale. The long scale differs systematically from all the others by about +0.25 mag within the Local Group (DM < 26) and by +1.1 outside (26 < DM < 35). Accident al errors are also much larger in the long-scale moduli (0.5 mag) than in the other two scales (0.1 mag). The mean value of the Hubble expan sion ratio for the test objects is [H] = 86 +/- 1 km.sec-1.Mpc-1.