In astronomy, a photometric system is a set of well-defined passbands (or filters), with a known sensitivity to incident radiation. The sensitivity usually depends on the optical system, detectors and filters used. For each photometric system a set of primary standard stars is provided.
The first known standardized photometric system is the Johnson-Morgan or UBV photometric system (1953). At present, there are more than 200 photometric systems.
Photometric systems are usually characterized according to the widths of their passbands:
- broadband (passbands wider than 30 nm, of which the most widely used is Johnson-Morgan UBV system)
- intermediate band (passbands between 10 and 30 nm wide)
- narrow band (passbands less than 10 nm wide)
Read more about Photometric System: Photometric Letters, Filters Used, See Also
Famous quotes containing the word system:
“Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)