Stellar Parallaxes
Because the even the nearest stars are very far away, the largest measured parallaxes is very small; less than an arcsecond.
For example, the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, has a parallax of 0.772-arcsec (the largest parallax observed for any star).
First parallax observed 1837 (Friedrich Bessel) for the star 61 Cygni.
We use photography and digital imaging techniques to measure parallaxes today. Increasingly, we measure parallaxes from space to avoid blurring due to the Earth's atmosphere