In theory, the absolute luminosities of stars in the red clump are fairly independent of stellar composition or age so that consequently they make good standard candles for estimating astronomical distances both within our galaxy and to nearby galaxies and clusters. Variations due to metallicity, mass, age, and extinctions affect visual observations too much for them to be useful, but the effects are much smaller in the infrared. Near infrared I band observations in particular have been used to establish red clump distances. Absolute magnitudes for the red clump at solar metallicity have been measured at −0.22 in the I band and −1.54 in the K band. The distance to the Galactic Center has been measured in this way, giving a result of 7.52 kpc in agreement with other methods.