The First Stellar Parallaxes Revisited

TL;DR

This paper re-analyzes the historic first stellar parallax measurements, clarifying measurement errors, data interpretation issues, and the true parallax of Vega, thereby refining early astronomical distance estimates.

Contribution

It provides a detailed re-examination of 1830s parallax data, explaining discrepancies and correcting earlier misunderstandings about measurement techniques and results.

Findings

Reproduces original parallax measurements with error analysis.

Identifies underestimated measurement errors in early data.

Resolves the Vega parallax discrepancy by analyzing data dimensions.

Abstract

We have re-analyzed the data used by Bessel, von Struve, and Henderson in the 1830s to measure the first parallax distances to stars. We can generally reproduce their results, although we find that von Struve and Henderson have underestimated some of their measurement errors, leading to optimistic parallax uncertainties. We find that temperature corrections for Bessel's measured positions are larger than anticipated, explaining some systematics apparent in his data. It has long been a mystery as to why von Struve first announced a parallax for Vega of 0.125 arcsec, only later with more data to revise it to double that value. We resolve this mystery by finding that von Struve's early result used two dimensions of position data, which independently give significantly different parallaxes, but when combined only fortuitously give the correct result. With later data, von Struve excluded the "problematic" dimension, leading to the larger parallax value. Allowing for likely temperature corrections, and using his data from both dimensions, reduces von Struve's parallax for Vega to a value consistent with the correct value.