with earth-based observatories. The relative proximity of the two stars combined with the 6.5 billion kilometer (about 43 AU) distance of the spacecraft from Earth yielded a discernible parallax of arcminutes, allowing the parallax to be seen visually without instrumentation.

The European Space Agency's Gaia mission, launched 19 December 2013, is expected to measure parallax angles to an accuracy of 10 microarcseconds