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'''Photometric parallax''' is a means to infer the distances of [[star]]s using their colours and apparent brightnesses. It was used by the [[Sloan Digital Sky Survey]] to discover the [[Virgo super star cluster]].
Assuming that a star is on the main sequence, the star's [[absolute magnitude]] can be determined based on its color. Once the absolute and [[apparent magnitude]]s are known, the distance to the star can be determined by using the [[distance modulus]]. It does not actually employ any measurements of [[parallax]] and can be considered a misnomer. For evolutionary stages other than the main sequence, an absolute magnitude corresponding to the star's [[luminosity class]] (e.g. supergiant) and [[spectral type]]
Unlike the [[stellar parallax]] method, the photometric parallax method can be used to estimate the distances of stars over 10 kpc away, at the expense of much more limited accuracy for individual measurements.
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