Lab Research Report 1: Procedures in the Physical Sciences
Robert Hugee
Professor Brian McCann
SCI110024VA016-1134-001: Introduction To Physical Science
April 25, 2013

One of the underlying challenges in astronomy measurement is the determination of precise distances. Without a knowledge of its distance, the size of an observed object in space would remain nothing more than an angular diameter, and the brightness of a star could not be converted into its true radiated power, or luminosity .astronomy. (2013). Direct measurement of the wavefunction had also long been deemed impossible because of the key tenet of the uncertainty principle. University of Rochester (2013, March 3). Getting around the uncertainty principle: Physicists make first direct measurements of polarization states of light. ScienceDaily. Large-scale surveying & mapping problems are also key challenges in making direct
Measurements in astronomy. Pogge R.(2006)

One of the indirect forms that the scientists have used is to resort to GEOMETRY to find the
Distance. Parallax is one of the indirect methods where astronomers can measure the position of a nearby star very carefully with respect to more distant stars behind it, then measuring those distances again six months later when the Earth is on the opposite side of its orbit. Allen J.,Boyd
P. (1997,April 15)
The limitation of parallax is that it just gives distances to stars tp up to a few thousand light
Years and beyond those distances, parallax are so small that they cannot be measured by
Contemporary instruments.
The methods used beyond light years are

Stellar motions: All stars are in motion, but only for nearby stars are these motions perceivable. Statistically, therefore, the stars that have larger motions are nearer. By measuring the motions of a large number of stars, we can estimate their average