Questions tagged [parallax]
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Length contraction, reciprocity and measures of distance
In this question, it is explained that parallax measurements of distance are affected by length contraction. This should be true on both ends, since movement is relative and not absolute, and that ...
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What's the relation between the parallax distance and the luminosity distance? [closed]
i have read that Riess and his team are able to measure $H_0$ from supernovae calibrated using Cepheid in a model independent way.
from what i have gathered they find the absolute luminosity of ...
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Parsec confusion
parsec is defined as the distance at which average radius of earth's orbit around sun would subtend an angle of 1''(second of arc). But suppose im looking at this star when earth is on one side of the ...
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Where is the focus point on a picture with full parallax?
Let's assume I have a theoretical display that can show a different flat picture depending on the viewer's location. It would provide different images to the left and right eyes of a human observer. A ...
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How do astronomers measure the parallax angle?
How do astronomers measure the angle p?
"Instead of closing one eye and then the other, we observe a star six months apart, so that we are on opposite sides of the sun for each observation. ...
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Is this how we get the stellar parallax angle? [duplicate]
I know this question has been asked before, but for me, something is missing in the answers. I think I might have it figured out though. So the parallax is usually explained with an illustration ...
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What is the formula to calculate the parallax angle?
The images were rendered in Blender. The two images were rendered 20 meters apart, side by side. The focal length is 50 mm if that matters. What is the formula to calculate the parallax angle θ as ...
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How does a proper motion displacement of $x$ arcseconds/year mean a star is moving at $x$ AU/year?
I trying to understand the author's answer to this question:
I don't understand the part underlined red. How does 3.6pc mean 3.6AU? It says a "distance of 3.6AU", but doesn't say what is ...
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Parallax and redshift - has anyone used Gaia data to match objects with redshift data?
Given the recent Gaia parallax data out to large distances, has anyone used that data to match objects with observed redshift data?
I have taken as much Gaia object data as I can and compared it with ...
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Is the parallax of NEOWISE primarily caused by the earth's or the comet's motion?
The Comet C/2020 F3 (also known as "NEOWISE") appears to move compared to stars in the background:
(Screenshots from Stellarium)
Those images are one hour apart as seen from Germany.
Is ...
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How do scientists calculate the orbital period of a planet?
It is known that you can calculate the distance to a planet using parallax, but how do scientists calculate the orbital period of a planet?
(Assuming they don't know the distance and can't use Kepler'...
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Hologram Questions
How does a hologram create parallax, compared to a photograph? If a hologram's purpose is to reproduce the light field, what part of that field creates parallax (angle, magnitude or position)?
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Parallax angle calculation
I'm trying to understand how the parallax angle is calculated.
I alredy read this explanation.
So we got that distance between the sun and the star is d = tan(α) * 1 AU.
That said my doubt is about ...
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What is a simple argument to prove that the stars in the sky are further away from the Earth than the Moon?
How do we know, without using modern equipment, that the stars are further away than the moon in the night sky? Further, is there a simple and actionable argument to prove that this is indeed the case?...
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Would a parallax measurement of distance to a star be affected by relativistic length contraction?
Let's say you had 2 ships launched 1 light year apart towards a star 10 ly away and they were equidistant from the star moving at .6c towards it. Would their velocity cause their parallax distance ...
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How to find transverse component of star's velocity given its proper motion and distance from observation point?
If $\mu$ is the proper motion of a star in arcseconds per year, and $d$ is the star’s distance from us, then the transverse speed, $v_t$ will be
$$v_t=d\sin\mu$$
For small motions (assumed for ...
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Why do we have to wait half a year to measure stellar parallax
To measure distance of astronomical objects, often we may use parallax, the angle it makes with the earth-sun and trigonometry to determine the distance.
The thing I don't get is why do we need to ...
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How accurately can the distance of a star be measured?
With the launch of the GAIA mission some years ago, a new precedent was set in mankind's ability to map our universe. However, how accurate are the distances created by this? From ESA's website, I ...
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What is the simplest way to find the distance of stars?
Once, I was staring at the sky and wanted to know the distance to stars I could see. I searched the Internet but didn't find any easy to use tools. The distance to stars can be measured using ...
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Parallax versus Redshift when measuring astronomical distances?
From my understanding, the most common method for calculating how far away stars and galaxies are relative to us is by accounting for their redshift. I feel that this method could be inaccurate, ...
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How to use parallax and Cepheids together to measure distances?
I can't quite grasp the simple version of how the Cepheid method uses the parallax method to measure the distance to distant galaxies.
What I know is that Cepheids exhibit a period vs luminosity ...
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How is the parallax angle actually measured?
I understand that parallax is used to measure distances to stars. But how is the parallax angle actually measured?
In the parallax diagram we have two similar triangles, but we don't know any values ...
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Parallax calculation
I am asked to find the parallax of a star "Spica" as observed at $30.1$ $AU$ from the Sun.
I want to use the small-angle formula: $\alpha=\frac{206265*D}{d}$ where $D$ is the baseline, $d$ the ...
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Why do some stars have a negative parallax?
I am constructing a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for stars within some radius around Pleiades and have repeatedly come across stars that have negative parallaxes. For example, http://vizier.u-strasbg....
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How to account for the movement of stars during measurement of parallax?
In my GCSE physics class today I was doing revision for my upcoming GCSEs, and we came to parallax measurements, as before my teacher explained that two measurements are taken six months apart as the ...
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3D movie optics mathematics
I get the idea that we use two polarized light sources and a parallax rendered film such that the objects seem to resemble true parallax in our eyes once it passes through the polarized glasses, but I'...
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Describe a path that a star moves around the sky [closed]
Suppose a star in the ecliptic plane has a parallax of p = 0.5 arcsec and a proper
motion perpendicular to the ecliptic plane of µ = 1.0 arcsec/year.
I need to describe the path that the star ...
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How are the distances and diameters of stars measured experimentally?
How is the distance of a star and its diameter measured using Earth-based tools? Normally we can measure the angle between the stars edge. But diameter or distance are needed to measure the other ...
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Measuring parallaxes from the moon
If one were to measure star parallaxes from the moon, what (if any) changes would you have to make compared to someone making the calculation from earth? What about on another planet in our solar ...
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Quick question on astronomical units
I'm trying to solve for $\frac{M*}{M_0}$ and $p''$ using these two equations:
Here is the lecturer's working, I worked it out several times and I got a different answer!
Surely when you use Kepler's ...
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Quick question on parallax and parsec
I know that 1 parsec (pc) is the distance of star at which 1 AU subtends 1 arcsecond.
so $1 pc = \frac{1 AU}{1"}$
Now, if two stars in a binary with a separation of 3" and have a trigonometric ...
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How to calculate error of parallax and sextant based navigation?
First of all, why wasn't the sextant ever used for land navigation? The horizon is easier to see at sea, but land based sextants could be used in conjunction with artificial horizons (as at sea when ...
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Parallax, obliquity, precession, and Orion?
Today, the obliquity of the earth is about 23.4°.
6500 years ago, it was about 24.1°
Imagine the blue square is the constellation of Orion, and the yellow star is the sun. Viewpoint B is you, on ...
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Other than the motion of the Earth, what else would cause parallax?
Wikipedia has this to say about the discovery of the aberration of light:
In 1728, while unsuccessfully attempting to measure the parallax of Eltanin, James Bradley discovered the aberration of ...
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Why don't the relative positions of stars and other objects in a galaxy change over the year?
Though the identifiable stars in a constellation (say Andromeda) and a galaxy (say the Andromeda galaxy) are situated light years apart, why doesn't the galaxy appear at different positions with ...
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When and how were relative distances to the planets first measured?
I understand that the absolute distance to a planet can be measured using earth-baseline (e.g., diurnal) parallax, and that the first reasonably accurate such measurement was made for Mars by Cassini (...
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