Image Details
Caption: Figure 1.
The Earth-based and New Horizons images of Proxima Centauri and its star field are shown side by side to demonstrate the large ES parallax. Proxima Cen is the bright star near the center of the field. The field shown is ﹩1{0}^{{\prime} }\times 1{0}^{{\prime} }﹩. North is at the top. The image pairs have been prepared to a common image scale, field, and orientation so that the parallax can also be recognized with stereo imaging. The top pair is positioned for “cross-eyed” viewing. Crossing your eyes to view the New Horizons–based image with the left eye and the Earth-based image with the right eye will create the appearance of Proxima Cen floating in front of the background stars. The two images are swapped in position in the bottom row to allow for parallel viewing. In this case, the left eye views the left panel and the right eye the right panel. Parallel viewing can also be done with by mounting the images in a stereoscopic viewer. Our experience on the New Horizons team is that there is no clear preference between cross-eyed vs. parallel viewing.
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