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Astronomy and Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Why is an inverse logarithmic scale chosen for the magnitudes of stars?
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[QUOTE="sophiecentaur, post: 6400169, member: 199289"] It has to be down to history, I think. The Greeks (other civilisations are available) needed a scale for brightness that was 'open ended' and described https://www.astro.indiana.edu/novasearch/magnitude.html. I suggest that negative numbers and even zero were not too familiar at the time so positive values would relate to 'how hard it is to see stars' or even 'how many you might see under given conditions'. The sign used in the logarithmic formula would have to follow the original rule, which divided visible stars into values from just 1 to 6 Magnitude. The present system allows for extremely dim targets. [/QUOTE]
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Astronomy and Cosmology
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Why is an inverse logarithmic scale chosen for the magnitudes of stars?
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