HOW TO ESTIMATE STAR MAGNITUDE

Even to casual stargazers its pretty obvious that the stars are of differing brightness. Astronomers always like to
catalogue and classify objects in the sky, and the brightness of stars is no exception. Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek
astronomer Hipparchus devised the system we use for this purpose, called the magnitude scale.
In Hipparchuss magnitude scale, the brightest stars were known as first magnitude and the faintest stars were sixth
magnitude. He gave a higher number to the faintest stars,
which sounds a little topsy-turvy until you swap the word magnitude for the word class. Looking at it this way you start
to see them as first class stars, second class stars and so on as the stars get fainter, putting the scale into perspective.
At the brighter end of the scale, magnitudes become a little awkward as some stars and other objects are brighter than
first magnitude. There are stars with zero magnitude wrongly suggesting they have no brightness and in cases where
the stars are even brighter, they have a negative magnitude, as you can see in these examples:
The Sun 27
Full Moon 12
Venus (at its brightest) 4.4
Arcturus 0.04
Vega +0.03
Polaris +1.99
Pluto +13.9
With telescopes and imaging equipment like CCD cameras, you can go way beyond the sixth-magnitude objects on
Hipparchuss original scale and capture objects like Pluto, which is far too dim to be seen with the naked eye. The Hubble
Space Telescope has managed to image objects as faint as magnitude +30. Dont forget that the magnitude doesnt tell
you how luminous an object really is in itself; its a measure of the apparent brightness of a star as seen from our vantage
point here on Earth.
The great thing about star magnitudes is that by getting to know the brightness of stars and carefully observing them,
youll be able to estimate the magnitudes of other objects you see in the sky. This is handy when you see a meteor
streaking across the sky, or a passing comet. You might also want to keep track of the changing brightness of a variable
star so that you can let others know how bright it is.
Know your sky
The first step in learning how to estimate magnitudes is to make sure you know what youre looking at. Print out a
detailed star chart showing star magnitudes near your chosen star from planetarium software such as Redshift, or from
one of the websites in Find out more on page 80. You need to identify the field of view correctly. In our step-by-step
guide using Ursa Minor over the page, this may seem easy, but when youre tackling fainter stars in star fields that you
havent observed much, it can take some time to find where you are.
When youve got to grips with what youre looking at, use your chart printout to find two stars in the same field of view as
the one youre interested in, to compare it against. These comparison stars need to be on either side of your target star
in terms of brightness one brighter and one fainter. You also need to make sure that both comparison stars are not
variable stars, which change in brightness. Now decide how bright your target star is when compared to the two
comparison stars. Is it halfway between them, or is it somewhere else in between, being of a more similar brightness to
one than the other? Use your own judgement and be consistent in how you make your comparisons.
Once youve decided, its time to put a figure on the target stars magnitude in comparison to your two other stars. Look
up the magnitudes of the comparison stars on your star chart. Knowing this will help you make a reasonable estimate of
your target stars magnitude. Lets say the two comparison stars are of magnitudes +4.0 and +3.0. If the target star is two-
thirds of the way from the faintest star to the brightest, this gives you an estimated magnitude of about +3.3. Dont worry if
youre a little unsure; practice makes perfect.
Give it a go
Now lets try a real example. High up at this time of year is the constellation of Draco, the Dragon. The stars youll need
are marked on it in the image below. Its a constellation meandering between the two bears, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor,
and it has a distinct pattern of four stars marking its head, known as the Lozenge. Were going to estimate the magnitude
of one of those stars, Grumium (Xi () Draconis). The comparison stars were going to use are Etamin (Gamma ()
Draconis) and Kuma (Nu () Draconis), at magnitudes +2.2 and +5.0 respectively.
The constellation of Draco is high this time of year. Use the stars Gamma () and Nu () Draconis to estimate the
magnitude of Xi ()
Observe carefully and try and work out where the brightness of Grumium lies between our two comparison stars. You
should see that its roughly two-thirds of the way from Etamin towards Kuma, which will then give you a rough estimate for
this stars magnitude of about +4.0.
With your newfound skill youll be able to work out the brightness of a host of different objects, including variable stars.
Youll also be able to use binoculars or a telescope to estimate the brightness of really faint objects such as minor planets
or comets. Make sure you record your findings in a log book you never know what you might find.