Miras and Galactic Populations

In order to exploit the imminent HIPPARCOS data we have developed a new Maximum-Likelihood method to determine luminosity calibrations and kinematical properties with as bias-free as possible estimates. In most cases the samples are inhomogeneous, containing stars of several types. The method includes a way to separate the different groups. We applied the method to Mira variables contained in the HIPPARCOS Input Catalogue.