We measure the ratio of total to selective extinction , R _ { VI } \equiv 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 \pm 0.016 , and show that our measurement has no significant dependence on stellar type from G0 to K4 .
Adjusting the Paczyński 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 \pm 0.16 { kpc } , where the error bar takes account of statistical but not systematic uncertainties .

\keywords distance scale – dust , extinction – Galaxy : center