32. Commission des “Selected Areas”

The following lines give a summary of the work concerning Kapteyn’s Plan of Selected Areas up to December 1937.</jats:p

29. Commission des Spectres Stellaires

There has been a marked change in the past few years in the incidence of interest in stellar spectra. The great initial task of classification has attained its first objective—though the Henry Draper Extension, and other investigations are still progressing. Perhaps a million stars are still accessible to classification with existing instruments; but more and more time is being spent upon individual spectra, and upon theoretical investigations. In these fields progress has been very rapid, and only some of the more important results may be mentioned here.</jats:p

25. Commission de Photométrie Stellaire

The following summarizes the activities of various members of the Commission in matters pertaining to stellar photometry during the interval 1932-35: La partie photométrique des trois derniers volumes du Catalogue Astrographique (zone de Catane entre +46° et +55°) est soigneusement dressée sur le système de Miss Leavitt (Harv. Annals, 81). L’erreur moyenne des grandeurs, d’après la réduction de 100 plaques (zones +51° à + 54°, entre 6h et I2h), n’est que de ± om.o8. Nos réductions photométriques ont été effectuées par la formuleD = a-bg+cg2-dg3,où D dénote le diamètre de l’image photographique et G=8m+g dénote la grandeur de l’étoile.</jats:p

36. Commission de la Spectrophotométrie

The present report is the first for which this newly-formed Commission has been responsible. In view of this fact, and in view of the still exploratory nature of many investigations in spectrophotometry, as well as the need for the highest measure of individuality in the attack of the not simple problems involved, it would be premature to propose, simple though it might be to do so, any far reaching plans for co-operative schemes of investigation. These undoubtedly will play a part in the later work of the Commission, but what appears to be needed now is a closer definition of the aims of spectrophotometry, and at least a reference to the many branches of the subject where investigation is needed. The present report attempts to deal with these topics in three successive sections, concerned in turn with the unique property of spectrophotometric measures, the fields of application of spectrophotometry, and recent developments in a still incomplete and difficult technique.</jats:p

25. Commission de Photométrie Stellaire

The committee of the Carte du Ciel in 1910 adopted the following convention : That for Ao stars between magnitudes 5·5 and 6·5 the mean photographic magnitude should equal the mean Harvard visual magnitude. As a corollary, the colour index of Ao stars would then be zero.The zero point of the photographic magnitudes of the International Polar Sequence was fixed as nearly as possible in accordance with this definition; but it was by no means certain that the magnitudes thus adopted for the few stars of the Sequence represented the zero point defined by all the Ao stars specified.</jats:p

29. Commission des Spectres Stellaires

Two-thirds of the members of the Commission have replied to the request of the chairman for an expression of their opinion. Most of them are in general well satisfied with the existing system of classification and nomenclature. Lindblad reports on successful work upon the determination of absolute magnitudes of faint stars, in many ways. Adams writes: “I might suggest that attention be called in the report to the fact that the ultra-violet spectra, even of stars like β Orionis, show large numbers of lines. As you probably remember, the spectrum of Sirius resembles, at first sight, the solar spectrum. If all observatories had the facilities for getting spectra in the far ultra-violet, this region would probably furnish the best criteria for spectral type.” Merrill suggests: “The nomenclature which, upon the basis of atomic transition, assigns the adjective ‘nebular’ to lines which may not occur in nebulae, and ‘ auroral ‘ to lines which may not occur in the aurora, is surely not an ideal one.</jats:p

27. Commission des Étoiles Variables

The Commission again subscribes to a number of the good resolutions it has made in the past, for example, to follow the almost universal practice of counting the observed times, either in decimals of a day or in hours and minutes, from Greenwich mean noon, even though one is convinced that the rest of the world should adopt U.T.; and to prepare a chart, identifying the variable and the comparison stars, to form a part of the discovery announcement of a variable which cannot be easily identified through a Durchmusterung number and which is bright enough to invite further observation.</jats:p