Surface brightness

[engaaraa]

What is it?
How does it relate to magnitude?
More importantly how does it relate to a scope's aperture and the sky conditions?
Is a higher number more shiny or the contrary?
Is the scale logarithmic?

I ask because I use the Wil Tirion's Cambridge star atlas and it does not list surface brightness. But Cartes Du Ciel does (I just noticed). I just got three starhopping books, "A guide to Backyard Astronomy" (Your Guide to Starhopping the Universe) featuring our friend Jeff Kanipe as one of the Authors, but the starhopping part was done by Robert Garfinkle, "Star Hopping" (Your Visa to Viewing the Universe" by Robert Garfinkle, and "Star Hopping for Backyard Astronomers" by Alan Macrobert. They all make some vague reference to surface brightness here and there, but it's not clear to me how to use this parameter to my advantage (possibly saving time not looking for objects I will not be able to see). For Nebula, it seems to me this is a more useful parameter to decide wether an object will be visible on a particular night on a particular scope. Is it?

[yale]

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze55p46/id18.html

[engaaraa]

Exelent!
Every DSO observer should read that. It's not easy info to find, and I was looking for just that. It should be a sticky link at the top (admins?)

I intend to keep in mind this parameter as I aquire more and more observing time and try to come up with some kind of guideline by keeping track of both Magnitude and Surface brightness on different objects as seen from different sky conditions and different scopes. At the very least it sounds like a fun thing to do for me.

[Skyjim]

Excellent suggestion, my friend!

It is hereby stuck!

[remcook]

Just an idea; because there are so many stickies now at AaA, these topics fill up my entire first page. Not that I'm bothered with that. But point is....maybe there will be more topics like this. My idea: maybe make a kind of reference internet page, which contains all this information (maybe just copy-paste the threads), and so you can have just one sticky topic. And every time something interesting comes up, it can be added to that internet page.

[payloadcontroller]

The technical term among astronomers for surface brightness is albedo. You might try searching on that for more info.

[Skyjim]

Actually, I think we're talking magnitude divided by area here, PLC - the characteristic which makes M-33 (to use the classic example) a tough target for many visual observers despite being mag 5.7 visual - since that light ouput is spread over a large area, it is still considered a faint object.  I think albedo is a reflective index.  Hate to noodge, but different issue.

Engaarraa, I think you have a point - PLC, do you think this is doable on the board?

Jim

[payloadcontroller]

Okay, I see your point, Jimbo. I see "surface brightness" though, and think albedo.

I don't see why we couldn't do engaaraa's idea. Let's approach Orstio about creating a reference section.

[Skyjim]

OK!

Hey, be good to that foot....

[Orstio]

I don't see why we couldn't do engaaraa's idea. Let's approach Orstio about creating a reference section.

There are a few ways this can be done.

I've already added the "Homepage" mod, so anyone can set up a "webpage" attached to their profile.  A FAQ can be set up that way.

I could make a forum specifically for it.

There is also a method of setting up a journal (similar to blogs) attached to the board.  That could also serve as a FAQ.

And, I can always make a FAQ page and upload it.

I'll look around, I'm sure there are other options as well.

Let me know what you prefer.

[yale]

Could you create some demos of those options?

[Orstio]

You can try out the homepage mod, if you wish.  It should be available for everyone.

I'll try to get the journal mod working and see how that looks.

[Orstio]

Here's what the Homepage looks like:

http://www.everything-space.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=;action=hpview;member=admin

We could create a null user named "FAQ" or "Telescope FAQ" or something like that, and add all relevant info to the page for that user.

This is what the Journal looks like:

http://www.everything-space.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=;action=journal

The main difference is that people will be allowed to add comments about the journal entries.

[engaaraa]

I want to point out that although it is a good idea, It was not mine, It's Rem,s  idea  

[Orstio]

How about splitting them into the "Important Topics"?

Does this work for everyone?