The Application of Multivariate Analysis to Parallax Solutions. I. Choice of Reference Frames

Abstract

view Abstract Citations (7) References (6) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS The Application of Multivariate Analysis to Parallax Solutions. I. Choice of Reference Frames Upgrela, A. R. ; Kerridge, S. J. Abstract The statistical method of principal component analysis is investigated as a technique for the formulation of parameters which measure effects of the choice of reference stars upon the parallax and its formal error. This multivariate analysis method is applied to 15 star fields measured in the course of the continuing parallax program of the Van Vleck Observatory. In all cases, the star designated as the parallax star was not the nearby red dwarf for which the plate series was originally taken but a nearby field star whose true parallax was assumed to be zero. Between 65 and 348 solutions were made for each star field; each solution used a different subset among the total comparison stars measured. Two situations are discussed; the first employs five geometrical parameters in each coordinate, but a second using eight variables in both cocordinates was found to provide further evidence on the dependence of the mean error on the parameters. The method appears worthy of extension to other variables affecting parallax solutions such as magnitude and color of each star measured. Publication: The Astronomical Journal Pub Date: September 1971 DOI: 10.1086/111180 Bibcode: 1971AJ.....76..655U full text sources ADS |