On 10.11.2016 22:14, Cousin Ricky wrote:

> The colors of stars are recorded as scalar magnitude differences, called
> color indexes.  Theoretically, the color of a star can be reconstructed
> from a color index by correlating the value to a temperature, then
> calculating the black body color.

There is probably no one true answer since color index is based
on broad-band filters with calibration determined empirically. Stars
are not quite perfect blackbodies and observed B-V is not intrinsic B-V
due to extinction effects, so if you calibrate the observed B-V against
temperature / class these effects are likely included in the mapping.

For precise temperature determination a spectrum is better.
But B-V can be determined easily for thousands of stars at once, even 
faint ones a thus yields large datasets for statistical analysis.

> Yesterday, while trying to distract myself from the realization that
> almost half my fellow citizens hate my guts

Sorry about that. So crazy.

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