Incorrect Parallax for Beta Aurigae (Menkalinin)

[BWS530i]

The parallax provided (0.420±0.020 mas) is resulting in a distance (2,400 pc or 7765 light-years) that that is incorrect.

The accepted parallax is 40.21±0.23 mas according the Simbad database. This yields a distance of 24.87 pc or 81.07 light-years

https://simbad.cfa.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-id?Ident=Beta+Aurigae&submit=submit+id

[henrysky]

Thanks for reporting, indeed it s wrong but strange that it is off by ~100 not something like ~1000. I will take a look and fix it, need to find the root cause of this in the data pipeline.

[BWS530i]

Thank you for checking into this odd problem. I wish I could take credit for finding the distance error, but it was reported to me by a student who was completing a one of our course labs that introduces Students to features of Stellarium.

It is odd that the numbers are there but in the wrong order and off by several orders of magnitude. The correct parallax is 40.21 mas, but is is 0.420 mas in Stellarium. I might be convinced the error in the decimal place is explainable, I'm not sure how the numbers could get transposed.

I do wonder if there are other problems that may be unnoticed.