SESKStuff Everyone Should Know
SESK: Stuff Everyone Should Know · sesk.info/astro-first-stellar-parallax

In what year was stellar parallax first successfully measured?

1838, by Bessel, Henderson and Struve.

Start playing free

  1. 1610
  2. 1687
  3. 1838 ✔

Why: The shifts are tiny, under 1 arcsecond even for the closest star, so it took until 1838. Bessel measured 61 Cygni, Henderson Alpha Centauri and Struve Vega, independently.

Huh, didn't know that: One arcsecond is about the apparent width of a quarter seen from 5 kilometers away.

The dad joke
Parallax took 200 years after the telescope. Stars really don't like to be pinned down.
Like this card?
Play the game

References

Answer: 1838. The shifts are tiny, under 1 arcsecond even for the closest star, so it took until 1838. Bessel measured 61 Cygni, Henderson Alpha Centauri and Struve Vega, independently.

  1. OpenStax Astronomy 2e, 19.2 Surveying the Stars openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/19-2-surveying-the-stars
    The first successful detections of stellar parallax were in the year 1838
    Checked 2026-10-10.

Think this answer is wrong? Tap "Challenge this answer" on the card in the game and tell us why.

Test yourself in the game

Astronomy & SpaceWho discovered infrared light in 1800 by putting a thermometer past the red end of a spectrum?Astronomy & SpaceWho built the first successful reflecting telescope, in 1668?Astronomy & SpaceHow big is the largest working refracting telescope, at Yerkes Observatory?

That's stuff everyone should know.