Online Astronomy Star Distance Calculator

Online Astronomy Star Distance Calculator

Calculate stellar distance using the parallax method.

Input

Results will be displayed here.

Understanding Stellar Parallax

Stellar parallax is the apparent shift in the position of a nearby star against the background of distant objects. Astronomers view a star from two different locations in Earth's orbit (e.g., six months apart) and measure the small angle of this shift.

The distance (d) to the star in parsecs is the reciprocal of the parallax angle (p) in arcseconds.

d = 1 / p

p

${distanceKm.toExponential(4)}

`; resultsPlaceholder.classList.add('hidden'); resultsContent.classList.remove('hidden'); } // --- PDF GENERATION --- async function downloadPDF() { if (typeof window.jspdf === 'undefined' || typeof window.html2canvas === 'undefined') { showAlert("PDF Error", "A required library for PDF generation could not be loaded. Please check your internet connection."); return; } pdfLoader.classList.remove('hidden'); pdfDownloadBtn.classList.add('hidden'); try { const { jsPDF } = window.jspdf; const pdf = new jsPDF({ orientation: 'p', unit: 'mm', format: 'a4' }); // Add Title pdf.setFontSize(18); pdf.setFont('helvetica', 'bold'); pdf.text('Stellar Distance Calculation Report', 105, 15, { align: 'center' }); // Add Input Value pdf.setFontSize(12); pdf.setFont('helvetica', 'normal'); pdf.text(`Input Parallax Angle (p): ${parallaxInput.value} arcseconds`, 15, 30); // Add Results const resultsCanvas = await html2canvas(document.getElementById('distance-outputs')); const resultsImgData = resultsCanvas.toDataURL('image/png'); pdf.addImage(resultsImgData, 'PNG', 15, 35, 180, 0); // Add Diagram const diagramCanvas = await html2canvas(document.querySelector('.parallax-diagram')); const diagramImgData = diagramCanvas.toDataURL('image/png'); const diagramStartY = 35 + (180 * (resultsCanvas.height / resultsCanvas.width)) + 10; pdf.addImage(diagramImgData, 'PNG', 105, diagramStartY, 90, 0, undefined, 'FAST'); // Add Explanation pdf.setFontSize(10); pdf.text('d (parsecs) = 1 / p (arcseconds)', 15, diagramStartY + 5); pdf.save('star-distance-calculation.pdf'); } catch (error) { console.error("PDF Generation Error:", error); showAlert("PDF Error", "An unknown error occurred while generating the PDF. Please try again."); } finally { pdfLoader.classList.add('hidden'); pdfDownloadBtn.classList.remove('hidden'); } } // --- EVENT LISTENERS --- calculateBtn.addEventListener('click', calculateDistance); pdfDownloadBtn.addEventListener('click', downloadPDF); // --- INITIALIZATION --- drawDiagram(); window.addEventListener('resize', drawDiagram); // Redraw if window size changes });
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