h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You'll have to define parallax for people now!

For a parsec, the following definition, avoiding using the term parallax, might be useful:

Imagine a large triangle in space that has the following shape:

* 1 short side at the bottom which is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun - also called an Astronomical Unit or AU, and about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometres)
* 2 long sides of equal length that stretch up and away to a star exactly 1 parsec away.

Now, if you were to stand on this star, you would see, if you had a nice big telescope (and if you hadn't yet been burned to a crisp), that the Earth and the Sun were exactly 1 arc-second (1/3600th of a degree) apart in the sky. This confirms that you are a parsec away from them (but only because you know how far apart they actually are (i.e. 1 AU).

So, what's next? Oort constants? Hee hee!

I was nearly an astronomer... money looked too nice, though!

I'm starting to have that same feeling about astronomy, except it is not really money I'm after.

I want to have a life.

I just can't see myself married to one tiny segment of astronomy for my entire life.

I could have been an astronomer, except that in the city there are too many neon lights, and as a side effect, too much night-life.
I now have to content myself with re-runs of Star Trek.