Lab Parallax Triangulation

DAY LABORATORY EXERCISE #5: PARALLAX & TRIANGULATION Goals:    To use trigonometry to determine distances and sizes of objects To gain experience in measuring angles and distances To measure a stellar parallax Equipment: rulers, magnetic compass, trigonometric calculator Methods:    Observe how far your finger appears to jump when you open and close either eye Observe angles to the Hyatt hotel from two different locations Measure the parallax of Barnard’s star from simulated HST images Introduction - How can we find the distances to stars? Direct probes such as laser ranging use the time delay between a light pulse sent to an object and the return of the reflected light pulse plus the finite speed of light to measure distances. However, stars are so far away and such poor reflectors that this approach is impractical (though it is used to determine distances to planets in our solar system). The question of measuring star distances has occupied astronomers at least since the time of the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus. He realized that if the Earth were to move around the Sun, then the stars should show the effects of parallax. This occurs whenever our viewpoint to nearby and distant objects changes, leading to an apparent angular change which is different for nearby objects, relative to more distant ones. The effect diminishes with distance so that even for the nearest stars, the parallax is so small that extremely precise measurements are needed just to detect the effect. In this laboratory exercise, you will use the parallax technique to measure the length of your arm and to become familiar with the necessary geometry. Next, a variant of parallax geometry, called triangulation, will be used to measure the distance and height of the Hyatt hotel (or some other visible building) across the Charles River. Finally, you will use simulated HST images containing one of the nearest stars, Barnard’s star, taken on four different dates to measure its stellar parallax and thereby determine its distance. Astronomical Trigonometry - Astronomers use trigonometry to solve many problems involving distances and angles. Most of these problems can be simplified to a single triangle, as shown in Figure 1. Triangles in general have three sides and three angles, but often right triangles (ones Figure 1: Right triangle showing the relation between the tangent with a 90 degree angle) make problem of the opening angle and the ratio of the sides of the triangle. solving much simpler. In this figure, our triangle has two marked sides (d and h) and one marked angle (). For such a right triangle, the trigonometric function known as the tangent of the angle is exactly equal to the length of the h side divided by lengths of the d side. We can also state that the angle  is equal to the arctangent (the inverse tangent) of the h/d ratio. With just the tangent trigonometric function, we can solve many astronomical geometry problems such as those arising in parallax and triangulation. Parallax Trigonometry - Figure 2 shows how parallax is used to measure the length of your arm. With a finger held out at arm’s length, if you close one eye and look, your finger is seen in projection against a distant object, like a wall of the lab. For example, if your left eye is open (“L” on the figure), you will see your finger (“F”) projected onto the wall at some location (“WL”). When you close your left eye and open the right (“R”), your finger (“F”) will appear to move its location (“WR”). The parallax angle  is defined to be one-half of the angle between the projected locations of your finger on the wall, so in the figure a dotted line (from “CE” to “CW”) is shown separating the two angles. The angle  also measures the angle between the projected locations of your finger on the wall. If the length of your arm is small compared to the distance you stand from the wall, then the angle  is equivalent to twice the  angles. In that case, /2 =  = arctangent (P/2 / [W-A]), where P is the measured distance between locations on the wall where your finger was projected (measured in cm) and [W-A] is the distance from your finger to the wall (measured in cm). We can rewrite this as: P = 2 * [W-A] * tangent(). Your arm distance is also related to , through the angle made by the lines CE-F and F-L. Here, B = 2 * A * tangent(), where B is the distance between your eyes (the “baseline”) and A is the distance from your eyes to your finger at the end of your arm. Seeing that we have tangent() in common in the wall and arm equations, we can substitute one into the other to obtain a simpler relation: A = B * ([W-A] / P), which relates arm length to eye separation and the apparent angular jump of projected finger locations on the distant lab wall. This can be solved alone for A to be: A = (B / (B+P)) * W Figure 2: Schematic top view of the configuration used to measure the length of your arm using parallax. The angles  are the parallax angles. Triangulation to distant objects - A terrestrial version of parallax which is practiced frequently is triangulation. Here we measure two angles and one baseline, and use trigonometry to determine object distances and heights. Figure 3: Triangulation geometry for measuring the distance to the Hyatt Hotel across the Charles River. The baseline b connects the two points from which sightings of the Hyatt are taken. Each sighting consists of a measurement of the angle between the North magnetic pole and the direction to the Hyatt. The geometry is similar to the lab parallax case. Here the distance to the Hyatt, d, is given by: d = (b/2) / tangent (). And, we can estimate angle  using the following relation:  = (1/2) * (1 - 2). Parallax to Barnard’s Star - If we take photographs or images of nearby stars at different times of the year, then the motion of the Earth about the Sun causes our observing location to be different and the nearby stars will show parallax motions. Barnard’s star is one such nearby star. But, in addition to showing parallax effects on images taken 6 months apart, this star is also moving in the plane of the sky at a rapid angular rate, meaning it is moving through the Milky Way, ALSO. This proper motion is seen as that motion of the star’s position against the fixed background stars which does not return to its original value one year later. Recall that on photographs taken exactly one year apart, stars will show no parallax effects. A series of images, taken over more than a year, can be analyzed to measure the star’s parallax, and therefore distance. These same images can be used to measure the star’s proper motion and, combined with the distance value, can be used to determine the speed of the star as it moves across the sky. Sensing the small parallax of Barnard’s star requires a large telescope with either exceptionally good seeing or a location in orbit about the Earth. And, while HST has not studied Barnard’s star, we have calculated some simulated images for this star and its neighbors and will use these to deduce the star’s distance and speed.