Astrometry with Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor 3: The Parallax of the Cataclysmic Variable RW Triangulum

RW Triangulum (RW Tri) is a 13th magnitude nova-like cataclysmic variable star with an orbital period of 0.2319 days (5.56 hr). Infrared observations of RW Tri indicate that its secondary is most likely a late-K dwarf (Dhillon). Past analyses predicted a distance of 270 pc, derived from a blackbody fit to the spectrum of the central part of the disk (Rutten, van Paradijs, & Tinbergen). Recently completed Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor interferometric observations allow us to determine the first trigonometric parallax to RW Tri. This determination puts the distance of RW Tri at 341, one of the most distant objects with a direct parallax measurement. We compare our result with methods previously employed to estimate distances to cataclysmic variables.