There is, in this respect, no mystery about the solution of the famous problem. Unfortunately, there is enormous difficulty.

When a surveyor has to determine the distance of an inaccessible object, he proceeds in the following manner. He first very carefully measures a base-line of convenient length. Then from either end of the base-line he takes the bearing of the inaccessible object—that is, he observes the direction in which it lies. It is clear that, if he were now to draw a figure on paper, laying down the base-line to some convenient scale, and drawing lines from its ends in directions corresponding to the bearings of the observed object, these lines would indicate, by their intersection, the true relative position of the object. In practice, the mathematician does not trust to so rough a method as construction, but applies processes of calculation.

Now, it is clear that in this plan everything depends on the base-line. It must not be too short in comparison with the distance of the inaccessible object; for then, if we make the least error in observing the bearings of the object, we get an important error in the resulting determination of the distances. The reader can easily54 convince himself of this by drawing an illustrative case or two on paper.

has to take his base-line for determining the sun’s distance, upon our earth, which is quite a tiny speck in comparison with the vast distance which separates us from the sun. It had been found difficult enough to determine the moon’s distance with such a short base-line to work from. But the moon is only about a quarter of a million of miles from us, while the sun is more than ninety millions of miles off. Thus the problem was made several hundred times more difficult—or, to speak more correctly, it was rendered simply insoluble unless the astronomer could devise some mode of observing which should vastly enhance the power of his instruments　Two considerations must have caused Scheer the gravest possible anxiety..

For let us consider an illustrative case. Suppose there was a steeple five miles off, and we had a base-line only two feet long. That would correspond as nearly as possible to the case the astronomer has to deal with. Now, what change of direction could be observed in the steeple by merely shifting the eye along a line of two feet? There is a ready way of answering. Invert the matter. Consider what a line of two feet long would look like if viewed from a distance of five miles. Would its length be appreciable, to say nothing of its being measurable? Yet it is just such a problem as the measurement of that line which the astronomer would have to solve.