Parallax Measurement to Light Years?

General physics and astronomy discussions not directly related to Celestia
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Dollan
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Parallax Measurement to Light Years?

Post #1by Dollan » 29.05.2006, 20:42

How does one transform parallax in milliarcseconds to light years?

...John...
"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe..."
--Carl Sagan

Malenfant
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Re: Parallax Measurement to Light Years?

Post #2by Malenfant » 30.05.2006, 00:17

Dollan wrote:How does one transform parallax in milliarcseconds to light years?

...John...


1) Convert milliarcseconds to arcseconds (ie divide by 1000).
2) 3.26 divided by parallax in arcseconds = distance in lightyears

(if you want to be really accurate then replace 3.26 with the exact number of lightyears in a parsec).
My Celestia page: Spica system, planetary magnitudes script, updated demo.cel, Quad system

Topic author
Dollan
Posts: 1150
Joined: 18.12.2003
Age: 54
With us: 21 years
Location: Havre, Montana

Post #3by Dollan » 30.05.2006, 03:45

Ah, thank you very much! I figured that it was something fairly easy. But, you know me and math... :roll:

...john...
"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe..."
--Carl Sagan

Malenfant
Posts: 1412
Joined: 24.08.2005
With us: 19 years 3 months

Post #4by Malenfant » 30.05.2006, 03:55

You might be interested in some of the spreadsheets I have at:
http://www.evildrganymede.net/rpg/traveller/mapping.htm

I've got one there that converts Ra/Dec to galactic coordinates, and it also has a parallax to lightyears converted in there too.
My Celestia page: Spica system, planetary magnitudes script, updated demo.cel, Quad system

Topic author
Dollan
Posts: 1150
Joined: 18.12.2003
Age: 54
With us: 21 years
Location: Havre, Montana

Post #5by Dollan » 30.05.2006, 13:56

Ooo... yes, VERY interested....

Thanks!

...John...
"To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe..."
--Carl Sagan


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