We have used the adaptive optics system on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to study a field 6 arcmin from the center of the heavily obscured elliptical galaxy Maffei 1 .
Our near diffraction-limited H and K ^ { \prime } images reveal an excess population of objects with respect to a background field , and we conclude that the asymptotic giant branch tip ( AGB-tip ) in Maffei 1 occurs at K = 20 \pm 0.25 .
Assuming that stars at the AGB-tip in Maffei 1 have the same intrinsic luminosity as those in the bulge of M31 , then the actual distance modulus of Maffei 1 is 28.2 \pm 0.3 if A _ { V } = 5.1 , which corresponds to a distance of 4.4 ^ { +0.6 } _ { -0.5 } Mpc .
This is in excellent agreement with the distance estimated from surface brightness flucuations in the infrared , and confirms that Maffei 1 is too distant to significantly affect the dynamics of the Local Group .