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As someone with a maths/science background it continually amazes me that sources quote distances to say the nearest 10 or 100 light years when the accuracy to the nearest 1000 light years is in question. The figures quoted are very misleading and lead one to question all data even though some may be more reliable than others. The same problem exists for visual magnitudes of larger objects such as galaxies where magnitudes are quoted to the nearest 0.1 and yet sources can vary by 1 magnitude.
Distances of objects are usually more accurately stated as e.g. Small Magellanic Cloud 197 + or - 9kly, which gives some indication of the reliability of the figures.
In my opinion, distances, masses, magnitudes etc. need to be more rigorously stated so that we all know in what areas the measurements are fairly accurate as against where they are just calculated guesses.
Regards, Rob.
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