The distances to five type II supernovae using the expanding photosphere method, and the value of H₀

We have used observations gathered at CTIO to measure distances by the expanding photosphere method (EPM) to five Type II supernovae. These supernovae lie at redshifts from cz = 1100 km s^-1 to cz = 5500 km s^-1, and increase to 18 the number of distances measured using EPM. We compare distances derived to 11 Type II supernovae with distances to their host galaxies measured using the Tully-Fisher method. We find that the Tully-Fisher distances average 11% ± 7% smaller. The comparison shows no significant evidence of any large distance-dependent bias in the Tully-Fisher distances. We employ the sample of EPM distances from 4.5 Mpc to 180 Mpc to derive a value for the Hubble constant. We find H₀ = 73 ± 6(statistical) ± 7(systematic) km s^-1 Mpc^-1.