WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF PARALLAX MEASUREMENTS IN SIZING THE UNIVERSE?
The ancients classified stars on the basis of magnitude, with the brightest stars being of the first magnitude, and dimmer stars trailing off as higher numbered magnitudes resulting in the confusing process of having the dimmer stars’ magnitude numbers higher than the numbers of the first magnitude stars. Under the empirical classification system, objects that can hardly be seen through telescopes have magnitudes in the twenties and really bright objects have negative magnitudes, a bit of legerdemain that lends credence to the belief that the measurements are actually measurements. The ancients quiet naturally thought that the brighter the star was, the greater its magnitude and the closer the star. Empirical Science is too sophisticated to make such a rash conclusion. A very bright object far away might look the same as a very dim object close-up. Thus, the magnitudes of the stars we see are only apparent. It is not possible to locate stars in space by their apparent magnitude, their
