During the course of one year, a star will appear to describe a circle if it is at the pole of the ecliptic, a segment of line if it is in the ecliptic, or an ellipse otherwise. The semimajor axis of this ellipse is called the parallax of the star. It is usually denoted by π. It equals the angle subtended by the radius of the Earth’s orbit as seen from the star (Fig. 2.24).