UBVRI photometry. II - The Cousins VRI system, its temperature and absolute flux calibration, and relevance for two-dimensional photometry

1979/10/01 by M. S. Bessell · 731 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Calibration #Calibration and Measurement Techniques #Effective temperature #Flux (metallurgy) #Materials science #Photometric system #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies

paper · doi:10.1086/130542

published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 91, 589 (Institute of Physics)

openalex publication_date 1979/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

The Cousins VRI system is proposed as an ideal system to adopt as the standard system for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere near-IR observations. Comparisons are made between (b-y), (G-R) 6 , (V-I)j J , and (V-I) C color indices measured for a large sample of equatorial HR stars which illustrate the precision of the system and the excellent temperature sensitivity of the (V- I) C index. Transformations between the different systems including the Eggen-Kron system are derived, a temperature calibration of (b-y), (R-I) C , and (V-I) C is provided based on empirical temperature determinations, and an absolute flux calibration for UBVRI is derived.Photometry using photographic plates, electronic area detectors, and digital spectra is also discussed, and details given of specific photometric detector systems.

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