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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 10 Nov 2016 16:12:39
Message: <5824e2c7$1@news.povray.org>
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.

The second step is easy, as it's already been done in a popular POV-Ray 
suite.  :-)  But the first step requires astronomical research.  A few 
years ago, I found a curve fit by Cameron Reed of Alma College. 
Yesterday, while trying to distract myself from the realization that 
almost half my fellow citizens hate my guts, I chanced upon another 
formula, by F. J. Ballesteros of Universitat de València.

I created a color map derived from each of the formulas.  (The curves 
show the sRGB compositions of the derived colors.)  The resulting images 
are quite different.  It looks like I'll have to look up a few actual 
stars and see which one of these curves matches the stellar data more 
closely.


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From: Christian Froeschlin
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 10 Nov 2016 19:27:35
Message: <58251077@news.povray.org>
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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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 10 Nov 2016 23:35:01
Message: <web.58254a42890e905782fed3640@news.povray.org>
Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> 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.

If I had a spectrum, I could go directly to color; I wouldn't need temperature
as a proxy.

However, aside from full spectral data being less available, I'm not sure it
would get me better results for ray tracing purposes, as it would disregard the
interstellar extinction effects.

A direct spectrum would be best if I were doing a portrait of a single star.  It
would also get me accurate colors for carbon stars, which, you might remember
from an earlier post, turned out hot pink when I used a B-V-to-temperature
correlation.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 11 Nov 2016 00:00:01
Message: <web.58254faf890e9057f0fb99620@news.povray.org>
"Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
> However, aside from full spectral data being less available, I'm not sure it
> would get me better results for ray tracing purposes, as it would disregard the
> interstellar extinction effects.

On second thought, no it wouldn't.


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From: And
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 11 Nov 2016 01:00:00
Message: <web.58255d49890e9057c4a8e0d0@news.povray.org>
"Cousin Ricky" <rickysttATyahooDOTcom> wrote:
> Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> > 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.
>
> If I had a spectrum, I could go directly to color; I wouldn't need temperature
> as a proxy.
>
> However, aside from full spectral data being less available, I'm not sure it
> would get me better results for ray tracing purposes, as it would disregard the
> interstellar extinction effects.
>
> A direct spectrum would be best if I were doing a portrait of a single star.  It
> would also get me accurate colors for carbon stars, which, you might remember
> from an earlier post, turned out hot pink when I used a B-V-to-temperature
> correlation.

Star spectrum...Do you mean the black-body radiation?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_law


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 11 Nov 2016 06:48:34
Message: <5825b012$1@news.povray.org>
Am 10.11.2016 um 22:14 schrieb Cousin Ricky:

> I created a color map derived from each of the formulas.  (The curves
> show the sRGB compositions of the derived colors.)  The resulting images
> are quite different.  It looks like I'll have to look up a few actual
> stars and see which one of these curves matches the stellar data more
> closely.

The kink near -0.02 in the Reed curves looks pretty suspicious; are you
sure you got the formula right?


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 11 Nov 2016 14:20:01
Message: <web.5826197f890e905782fed3640@news.povray.org>
"And" <49341109@ntnu.edu.tw> wrote:
> Star spectrum...Do you mean the black-body radiation?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_law

Star spectra are similar to black body radiation, but they are not the same.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 11 Nov 2016 14:25:00
Message: <web.58261a8d890e905782fed3640@news.povray.org>
clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Am 10.11.2016 um 22:14 schrieb Cousin Ricky:
>
> > I created a color map derived from each of the formulas.  (The curves
> > show the sRGB compositions of the derived colors.)  The resulting images
> > are quite different.  It looks like I'll have to look up a few actual
> > stars and see which one of these curves matches the stellar data more
> > closely.
>
> The kink near -0.02 in the Reed curves looks pretty suspicious; are you
> sure you got the formula right?

It's actually a two-part formula, and the kink is where the formula cuts over.
The Reed formula is an empirical curve fit.  I don't know about the Ballesteros
formula.


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From: Cousin Ricky
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 12 Nov 2016 21:55:01
Message: <web.5827d543890e9057b99945e00@news.povray.org>
Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
>   It looks like I'll have to look up a few actual
> stars and see which one of these curves matches the stellar data more
> closely.

These are my results for the brightest stars, plus a few dimmer, but colorful
stars:

                      Surface         Reed             Ballesteros
Star           B-V    Temperature     Pred.   Diff.    Pred.   Diff.
----           ---    -----------     -----   -----    -----   -----
Mu Col        -0.28   33000           26417   -6583    15882  -17118

Alpha 1 Cru   -0.24   24000           20918   -3082    14633   -9367

Alpha Vir     -0.23   22400           19845   -2555    14354   -8046

Alpha Eri     -0.16   15000           14320    -680    12692   -2308


Alpha CMa      0.00    9940            8908   -1032    10125     185

Alpha PsA      0.09    8590            8421    -169     9125     535

Alpha Car      0.15    6998            8111    1113     8571    1573


Alpha 1 Cen    0.71    5790            5716     -74     5568    -222

Alpha 2 Cen    0.88    5260            5139    -121     5051    -209


Alpha Tau      1.54    3910            3402    -508     3734    -176

Alpha Ori      1.85    3590            2803    -787     3333    -257
Mu Cep         2.35    3750            2051   -1699     2845    -905

Reed's formula is a better match at bluer than -0.1, although it still isn't
very good.  Both formulas are good up to about 1.0, and Ballesteros' is better
for the reddest stars.

The B-V values were copied directly from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue, 5th
edition; and the temperature data are from Wikipedia, which in turn got its data
from a variety of sources.


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From: Dave Blandston
Subject: Re: Stellar colors: someone is wrong
Date: 19 Nov 2016 08:30:00
Message: <web.583052c9890e90576ae7df010@news.povray.org>
Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> Yesterday, while trying to distract myself from the realization that
> almost half my fellow citizens hate my guts

You have piqued my curiosity! What country do you live in? Why do people who
don't know you hate you? What are you basing this statement on? I'm very
curious! When a population turns against the educated, intelligent members of
it's own society there's a big problem! Whoever you are, whatever country you're
in, I consider you my friend (for what that's worth).

Regards,
Dave Blandston


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