2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/6607The DIRECT project aims to determine direct distances to two important galaxies in the cosmological distance ladder -- M31 and M33 -- using detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs) and Cepheids. I present an overview of the project and some results from follow-up observations.Invited talk (6 pages, 5 figures) to be published in the proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 193, "Variable stars in the Local Group", D.W. Kurtz & Karen Pollard, eds. A version with full-resolution figures can be obtained from http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~kstanek/DIRECT/macri_iau193.ps.gzAstrophysicstext