Abstract
AN enumeration of the stars, classified according to their brightness and their position in the sky, must form a part of any general investigation into the nature of the stellar universe. It has long been one of the primary aims of astronomy to execute this enumeration. Consider able difficulties of a practical nature have to be faced in the course of the work, however, and only now do they appear to have been so far overcome as to enable a consensus of opinion to be formed amongst astronomers regarding the main features of the results. Whether visual or photographic methods are used, it is anything but easy to deter mine star magnitudes according to an absolute scale of light-ratio, and to maintain a constant zero point for the scale in widely separated regions of the sky.
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C., S. The Number and Distribution of the Stars. Nature 100, 128–129 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/100128a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/100128a0