[Tron]

Hey Guys,

I know there's been a lot of talk about how far objects in space are.  It occured to me that if the atmosphere is shaped like a Dome, then it will act like a telescope and magnify the appearance of images like the Sun, Planets, and Stars.  
Here is a photo of earth taken from a Mars orbiting spacecraft and the ajoining article:



https://earthsky.org/space/hirise-image-earth-moon-nov-20-2016/

You can see how small earth looks like from space.  But when you remember that looking down on earth without the aid of atmospheric lensing will render a smaller image of earth, then these kinds of space photos make sense even from a flat earth perspective. 

[J-Man]

I see Polaris every night out my window the same spot no matter the time,

[Tron]

The stars are close, but not close enough to see parallax or changes in there orientation to one another. 

[markjo]

The stars are close, but not close enough to see parallax or changes in there orientation to one another.

Astronomers using earth based telescopes can measure parallax of stars out to about 300 light years.  This is why you don't notice the parallax of Polaris (about 400 light years away).
https://lco.global/spacebook/distance/parallax-and-distance-measurement/

[Tron]

I didn't know we can measure parallax with some stars.  The only question I have is that to use parallax to triangulate the distance of certain stars, you would have to make an assumption about how far the earth has travelled in 6 months around the sun.  Is it possible to get similar results using smaller numbers for earth's change in seasonal position... 

[markjo]

Parallax is just basic trigonometry.  The longer the baseline, the better.  But even if you do assume a 180ish million mile, 6 month base line, even nearby stars have some pretty small parallax angles.  The hard part is getting very accurate and precise measurements of those angles and the earth's atmosphere becomes a limiting factor.  That's why parallax measurements from earth based observatories are limited to around 300 or so light years.  With smaller baselines (resulting in smaller parallax angles), the measurable distance would be significantly less.

[AATW]

I see Polaris every night out my window the same spot no matter the time,

As you would expect in the globe earth model.
What’s your point, caller?