Magnitude systems in old star catalogues

Tomoko Fujiwara; Hitoshi Yamaoka

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/0309322

Magnitude systems in old star catalogues

Tomoko Fujiwara·Hitoshi Yamaoka

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The current system of stellar magnitudes first introduced by Hipparchus was strictly defined by Norman Robert Pogson in 1856. He based his system on Ptolemy's star catalogue `Almagest', recorded in about 137 A.D., and defined the magnitude-intensity relationship on a logarithmic scale. Stellar magnitudes observed with the naked eye recorded in seven old star catalogues were analyzed in order to examine the visual magnitude systems. Despite that psychophysists have proposed that human's sensitivities are on a power-law scale, it is shown that the degree of agreement is far better for a logarithmic magnitude than a power-law magnitude. It is also found that light ratios in each star catalogue nearly equal to 2.512, excluding the brightest (1st) and the dimmest (6th and dimmer) stars being unsuitable for the examination. It means that the visual magnitudes in old star catalogues fully agree with Pogson's logarithmic scale.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Tomoko Fujiwara, Hitoshi Yamaoka. 2004-01-26. Magnitude systems in old star catalogues. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309322

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Cosmic Conundrums with Quantum Corrections

Darh energy was discovered over 25 years ago and we do not have an explanation of it. Dark matter comprises 95% of matter in the universe and we still don't know what it is. The Webb telescope has been finding fully formed galaxies with massive black holes millions of times the mass of the sun in the early universe and we don't have any explanation. A quantum density limitation will be used to solve these and other outstanding problems.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2026

On binary pulsars and the force of gravity

The energy-momentum budget of the astrophysical systems can be studied by the exact local conservation equation derived by Landau and Lifshitz. We show that a similar equation is valid for the Einstein-Cartan gravity. We reanalyze a binary pulsar system using the Landau-Lifshitz conservation equation and show that the orbital period change rate can be completely understood as a curvature backreaction process. Taking into account the detailed theoretical and observational research of relativistic binary pulsar systems, especially the system of Hulse and Taylor, we conclude that general relativity and astrophysical observations rule out the existence of gravitational radiation. We comment upon the LIGO GW events and their alternative explanation, as well as the recent pulsar timing arrays data.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2026

Oscillation frequencies and mode lifetimes in alpha Centauri A

We analyse our recently-published velocity measurements of alpha Cen A (Butler et al. 2004). After adjusting the weights on a night-by-night basis in order to optimize the window function to minimize sidelobes, we extract 42 oscillation frequencies with l=0 to 3 and measure the large and small frequency separations. We give fitted relations to these frequencies that can be compared with theoretical models and conclude that the observed scatter about these fits is due to the finite lifetimes of the oscillation modes. We estimate the mode lifetimes to be 1-2 d, substantially shorter than in the Sun.

astro-ph↗