Expert: Paul Wagner - 2/16/2004

Question
Hello.  I have found that when I look up stellar distances in various books and websites I get a variety of  numbers. For example, I see Betelgeuse put at 425 and  551 light years, and Rigel at 850 and 771, depending on where I look.

I wonder if you could tell me what would be the most authoritative source for stellar distanaces? (Best would be such a source on the Web)

Thanks.
David  

Answer
Dear David:

The reason there seem to be some discrepancies concerning stellar distances has to do with the evolution of our measuring systems.  Here's a link that does a great job of explaining how we are getting more accurate:

http://www-astronomy.mps.ohio-state.edu/~pogge/Ast162/Unit1/distances.html

If you REALLY want to get into the details, check out this site:

http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/distance.htm

Finally, here is the best site I have found for star distances--it's from the University of Toronto:

http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~garrison/oh.html

Other sites have more detailed distances, but only on a few stars.

Hope this helps.

Paul Wagner