The Ratio of Total to Selective Extinction Toward Baade's Window

We measure the ratio of total to selective extinction, R_{VI}=A_V/E(V-I), toward Baade’s Window by comparing the VIK colors of 132 Baade’s Window G and K giants from Tiede, Frogel, & Terndrup with the solar-neighborhood (V-I),(V-K) relation from Bessell & Brett. We find R_{VI}=2.283 +/- 0.016, and show that our measurement has no significant dependence on stellar type from G0 to K4. Adjusting the Paczynski et al. determination of the centroid of the dereddened Baade’s Window clump for this revised value of $R_{VI}$, we find I_{0,RC}=14.43 and (V-I){0,RC}=1.058. This implies a distance to the Baade’s Window clump of d{BW} = 8.63 +/- 0.16 kpc, where the error bar takes account of statistical but not systematic uncertainties.