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How is Parallax is easily measured by telescopes typically used by amateur astronomers.?
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Why can smaller parallax angles be measured by telescopes in Earth orbit?
Earth's atmosphere does not limit a telescope's resolving power.
What are the distances to stars measured in?
Astronomers typically measure distances in parsecs. One parsec is the distance of a hypothetical star having a parallax of 1 second of arc; it's about 3.2 light years.
Is Parallax easily measured by telescopes typically used by amateur astronomers.?
No, not really.Parallax only works for fairly close stars, and requires some fairly precise work even then. It's certainly possible for amateurs to do, but most probably couldn't or aren't really all that interested in re-proving what's been known for decades if not centuries.
Do astronomers spend all their time looking through a telescope and recording their results?
Nowadays, the bulk of the work astronomers do is on computers. They spend a small portion of their time at telescopes actually taking data. Astronomically-useful telescopes rarely have eyepieces you can look through. Radio, ultraviolet, or infrared telescopes collect light that you can't even see with your eye! Telescopes that collect visible light often have electronic cameras called CCD cameras that create an image in a computer. Many telescopes are used to create a spectrum (the light is split into a rainbow, and the brightness of each color is measured). Radio telescopes record signals that astronomers can reconstruct using a computer to make an image or a spectrum.
The distance to nearby stars can be measured by using?
Parallax
Do all-stars have measurable parallax angles?
No, only the closer ones have a parallax that is large enough to be measured. The first star to have its parallax measured was 61 Cygni, measured by Bessel in 1838 and found to be at a distance of 10.3 light years, later corrected to 11.4. The closest star Proxima Centauri has a parallax of only about 0.7 seconds of arc. Before then the absence of parallax for the stars was considered an important part of the case that the Earth cannot be revolving round the Sun.
Why can't the parallax effect be used to measure distances to other galaxies?
The parallax angle of such distant objects is way too small to be measured. In general, the farther away an object, the smaller is its parallax angle.
Most stars have such small parallax shifts that accurate measurement is always possible?
On the contrary, if the parallax angle is too small, it can't be measured accurately.
What did ancient astronomers know about the earth?
Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle recognized that Earth and the Moon are spheres, and understood the phases of the Moon, but because of their inability to detect stellar parallax, they rejected the idea that Earth moves. Eratosthenes measured the size of Earth with surprising precision.
How or with what do people measure a light year?
This can't be measured directly (as in, applying a measuring stick), so the distances are calculated in other ways. Several methods are used; for a start, for nearby stars, the star's parallax is measured. The smaller the parallax, the farther away the star is. Parallax is the apparent change in position, of a star, compared to the far-away background, as Earth moves from one side of its orbit, to the other.This can't be measured directly (as in, applying a measuring stick), so the distances are calculated in other ways. Several methods are used; for a start, for nearby stars, the star's parallax is measured. The smaller the parallax, the farther away the star is. Parallax is the apparent change in position, of a star, compared to the far-away background, as Earth moves from one side of its orbit, to the other.This can't be measured directly (as in, applying a measuring stick), so the distances are calculated in other ways. Several methods are used; for a start, for nearby stars, the star's parallax is measured. The smaller the parallax, the farther away the star is. Parallax is the apparent change in position, of a star, compared to the far-away background, as Earth moves from one side of its orbit, to the other.This can't be measured directly (as in, applying a measuring stick), so the distances are calculated in other ways. Several methods are used; for a start, for nearby stars, the star's parallax is measured. The smaller the parallax, the farther away the star is. Parallax is the apparent change in position, of a star, compared to the far-away background, as Earth moves from one side of its orbit, to the other.
How did they know the distance of the earth to the moon?
Originally, the distance was measured by a system called parallax measurement. Today, it is measured by laser beam, and is accurate to within inches.
What are some of the ways astronomers have measured interstellar distance?
speed of light
