The Fixed Stars Are Far Away From the Earth

The fixed stars are too far away from the earth for these changes of distance to be observable by any means that we have. Some people may find this incredible, but astronomers won't find it so strange because they already know that the earth is like a mere point in comparison with the heavens. So descarte wasn't specific, but he thought the stars were immensely far away. And his view that the stars are very distant suns became standard. This got rid of the outer shell of the fixed stars and left us floating in a vast sea of stars.