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Abstract

Radiation from space is practically the only source of information on stars and other distant celestial objects for the observational astronomer. The incident radiation is described completely by its flux, its direction, its color (wavelength), its polarization, the time of arrival, and—in certain cases—also by the location of the receiver. Photometry involves the measurement of radiation summed over a more or less extended wavelength region. Depending on the receiver of radiation and the method of observation, one can discriminate between visual, photographic, and photoelectric photometry, point and surface photometry, narrow-band, intermediate-band and broadband photometry, photometry with high time resolution, etc.

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Duerbeck, H.W., Hoffmann, M. (1994). Principles of Photometry. In: Roth, G.D. (eds) Compendium of Practical Astronomy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45688-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45688-6_8

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