Variations in External Parallax Errors

Abstract

The present astrometric program of the Van Vleck Observatory began in 1967. Since then it has emphasized parallaxes and proper motions of stars of the lower main sequence which are not identified on the basis of proper motion and are therefore not biased towards high space velocity. Later an analysis was made from parallax and proper motion data from 70 stars in the spectral range dK3-M2 (Upgren 1973) which found the average external mean error in parallax to be 8.0 ± 1.7 mas (milliarcseconds). This external error was found to vary little from one parallax to another and to have no correlation with the formal internal errors for the individual parallax determinations. Hanson and Lutz (1983) confirm this result using the parallaxes of 14 members of the Hyades cluster also determined at Van Vleck. They find a mean external parallax error of 94 ± 1.8 mas and suggest that the proximity of the two determinations may be evidence that Van Vleck parallaxes may be characterized by a single external error. Their slightly larger figure may or may not reflect the relatively fewer plates and epochs of observation from which the Hyades parallaxes were determined.