combined magnitude

The total brightest of two or more celestial objects, such as the stars of a binary system that appear as a single point to the naked eye. Unfortunately, this can't be found simply by adding the separate magnitudes, m₁ and m₂, because the magnitude scale is logarithmic. Instead the combined magnitude, m, has to be calculated from the formula:

m = m₁ - 2.5 log {1 + antilog [-0.4 (m₂ - m₁)]}.

Related categories

• ASTRONOMICAL QUANTITIES
• STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS

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