SIMBAD references

We present a survey of photometric data on the brightest stars in 43 nearby galaxies with V₀<500km/s. About 60% of the data are based on our own observations. Using for calibration distance moduli from Cepheids, and also newly defined membership of galaxies in multiple systems, we obtain the following relations between the luminosity of the 3 brightest red or blue stars and the luminosity of the parent galaxy: <M_V 3R)≥0.19M^T_B-4.52 with dispersion σ(M)=0.30mag, and <M_B(3B)≥0.35M^T_B-2.50 with σ(M)=0.30mag. The last relation extends over the whole range of galaxy luminosities from -21 to -9 mag. We advocate the necessity of a wide international programme to measure distances for the local galaxies using their brightest stars.