2004ApJ...610..269D

We present new and accurate near-infrared J- and K_s-band data of the Large Magellanic Cloud cluster Reticulum. Data were collected with SOFI at the New Technology Telescope and covered an area of approximately 5'x5' around the center of the cluster. Current data allowed us to derive accurate mean K-band magnitudes for 21 fundamental (RRab) and 9 first-overtone (RRc) RR Lyrae stars. On the basis of the semiempirical K-band period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ_K) relation we have recently derived, we find that the absolute distance to this cluster is 18.52±0.005 (random) ±0.117 (systematic). Note that the current error budget is dominated by systematic uncertainty affecting the absolute zero-point calibration and the metallicity scale.