A student observes a star from two positions of Earth in its orbit, in summer and winter, and measures the change in the position of the star. Which of these can be best calculated by this method?

Question

anonymous · Answer

Which of what? You can calculate the distance to the star if you know the diameter of the Earth's orbit - draw a diagram and try to work it out. This is known as geometric parallax and, with a good diagram, should be a fairly simple trig problem.

shane_b · Answer

http://www.astronomynotes.com/starprop/s2.htm