OUTLINES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY* 



SECT. XIV. 



OF THE ANNUAL PARALLAX AND DISTANCE OF 

 THE FIXED STARS. 







226. THE fixed stars, as has been already 

 6hewn, have no parallax with respect to this 

 Earth, or any line that can be measured on its 

 surface ; and their distance is so great, that it 

 is yet doubtful whether they have any parallax, 

 even with respect to the orbit of the Earth 

 round the Sun. 



A fixed star not only occupies exactly the same place 

 in the heavens, from whatever point of the Earth's 

 surface it is observed, bat it does so within a quan- 

 tity so small as to be hardly measurable, even 

 when viewed from opposite extremities of a dia- 

 meter of the Earth's orbit, 



On the supposition that the star does change its si- 

 tuation, when so viewed, the angle which measures 

 that change is called the Annual Parallax of the 

 Star. 



227. If 



