Upper Limit to the Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud

We remeasure the ``light echo'' times to the near and far side of the ringaround SN 1987A using the method of Gould (1995) and the new reductions of theoriginal UV spectra by Sonneborn et al. (1996). Under the assumption that thering is circular, we obtain an upper limit to the distance to the LargeMagellanic Cloud \mu_lmc < 18.37 +/- 0.04. This result is very close to Gould'soriginal value, and contradicts claims that the new spectra measurements leadto a significant increase in the distance estimate and a substantial increasein the statistical errors. We present new evidence (partly provided by A.P.S.Crotts) that the ring is intrinsically elliptical, with axis ratio b/a ~ 0.95.For an elliptical ring, \mu_lmc < 18.44 +/- 0.05. We elaborate on Gould'soriginal argument that the upper limit is robust, i.e., that it is only weaklysensitive to unmodeled aspects of the ring such as its hydrodynamic propertiesand ionization history.Comment: Contains new evidence that the ring is elliptical, courtesy of A.P.S. Crotts. This raises the upper limit to \mu_lmc < 18.44 +/- 0.0