Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-07-09
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
8 pages, 6 figures
Scientific paper
The goal of this document is to illustrate that teaching the concepts of magnitudes is a needless complication in introductory astronomy courses, and that use of monochromatic luminosities, rather than arbitrarily defined magnitudes, leads to a large gain in transparency. This illustration is done through three examples: the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, the cosmic distance ladder, and interstellar reddening. I provide conversion equations from the magnitude-based to the luminosity-based system; a brief discussion; and a reference to sample lecture notes. I suggest that we, astronomers in the 21st century, abolish magnitudes and instead use (apparent) monochromatic luminosities in non-specialist teaching. Given the large gain in transparency I further propose that we seriously consider using (apparent) monochromatic luminosities also in research papers, bringing optical astronomy in line with astronomy at other wavelengths. Comments are welcome.
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