3-2-11
Today we played around with the concept of parallax. Students viewed a pencil (star) against a background of lines (more distant stars) and noted how its position changed when viewed with one eye and then the other (simulates viewing from Earth 6 months apart). Students also looked at the difference between smaller and larger baselines (A-B below). Try this stellar parallax animation and stellar parallax simulator.
If a star has a parallax (angle) of 0.5 arcseconds, what is its distance in parsecs? Light years? (you may use your notes). First correct response in each section earns a piece of candy (must be a YSHS astronomy student!).