Stellar Magnitude

Stellar magnitude is a way to measure the brightness of stars as seen from Earth. It uses a logarithmic scale, so a difference of 5 magnitudes represents a brightness change by a factor of 100. The lower the number, the brighter the star; for example, a star with a magnitude of 1 is much brighter than one with a magnitude of 6. There are two types: apparent magnitude, which measures how bright a star appears from our viewpoint, and absolute magnitude, which assesses how bright a star would be if it were 10 parsecs away.