Abstract
Two recent publications (Bull. Acad. Sci. Georgian S.S.R., 3, No. 6, p. 509 ; No. 7, p. 657 ; 1942) give news that astrophysics still flourishes just beyond the high-water mark of the German advance into southern Russia. At Abastumani Observatory an extensive programme of photo-electric colorimetry of BS-B9 stars was begun in the summer of 1940 and is still in progress. The colours of all stars of these spectral types brighter than 7*5 mag., lying in a zone within 20° of the galactic equator, are being measured x with an antimony-caesium photo-cell attached to a 33 cm. reflector. Colour filters give effective wavelengths of 4060 A. and 5280 A., the resulting colour equivalents being on a base-line slightly longer than ordinary photographically determined colour indexes. The greater sensitivity, range and stability of the antimony-caesium cell enables the Russian observers, V. Nikonov and E. Brodskaja, to obtain observations of which the probable error is less than 0-01 mag. for stars brighter than the sixth magnitude, and less than 0-02 mag. for the fainter stars. When full results of this programme are available, they should add greatly to our knowledge of the selective absorption of light by interstellar matter situated fairly close to the sun.
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Stellar Spectrophotometry in the U.S.S.R. Nature 152, 746 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152746c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152746c0