- #1
nukeman
- 655
- 0
Hey guys,
What method do astronomers use to count the stars in the galaxy to come up with a number ?
What method
What methoddo astronomers use to count the stars in the galaxy to come up with a number ?
I'm not entirely clear on what you're asking. We know our basic position in the milky way, so if we could the stars near us (the ones we can easily see) we can try to compensate (statistically) for our position... also, one could use the direction dependence of the observed population of stars (very apparent in the above link), to construct an analytical model for the milky way's stellar distribution---then integrate to estimate the total.Lets say one way is to use a sampling method. How can we count/sample the stars when we are inside the milkyway? Or, how can we use simple methods to count stars we can see in the sky, or on a all sky survey?