How is stellar parallax found?

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How is stellar parallax found?

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Answer 1 · 2016-03-25T05:15:14

Observe angular displacement of the star, from the same location, for the duration of N days. This is stellar parallax for the displacement of the observer through N days, in Earth's orbit.

Explanation:

Stellar parallax is the apparent angular displacement of a star , when the observer is displaced.

If this angle is $α$ $alpha$ , for two observations in time-spacing N days, the distance of the star is

$\frac{tan (2 π \frac{N}{365.256363})}{tan (\frac{α}{2})}$ $tan (2piN/365.256363)/tan(alpha/2)$ AU
= $2 \frac{tan (2 π \frac{N}{365.256363})}{α}$ $2tan (2piN/365.256363)/alpha$ AU, nearly.
(If $α$ $alpha$ is in radians and is quite small, tan $\frac{α}{2}$ $alpha/2$ = $\frac{α}{2}$ $alpha/2$ , nearly).

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How is stellar parallax found?

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