2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/15473The two nearby galaxies, M31 and M33, are stepping stones for most of our current efforts to understand the evolving universe at large scales. We are undertaking a long term project, called DIRECT, to improve the direct distance estimate to M31 and M33. The massive photometry we have obtained as part of our project over the past 3 years provides us with very good light curves for known and new Cepheid variables, a large number of eclipsing binaries and other variable stars. Some recent results on the 470+ new Cepheids are discussed, as well as our correction for effects of blending using archival HST images.5 pages, 4 figures, invited contribution at IAU Symp. 176, Budapest 1999, "Impact of Large-Scale Surveys on Pulsating Star Research", ASP Conf. SerAstrophysicstext