distance indicators from colour-magnitude-diagrams: main sequence, red clump and tip of the rgb

the location of the lower main sequence in the colour magnitude diagram, the magnitude of the red clump and the magnitude of the tip of the red giant branch are three popular stellar distance indicators. with the present observational capabilities they can be applied to reach distances ranging from the galactic disk and halo populations, to galaxies beyond the local group. the techniques devised to exploit these distance indicators are presented, together with a discussion of their calibration, the main sources of systematic errors and the predicted impact of the results from the gaia mission.