Question

What are the symbols for, and the differences betweem apparent visual magnitude and absolute visual magnitude?

Answer 1

The apparent magnitude (m) of an astronomical object is a number that is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth. The magnitude scale is logarithmic. A difference of 1 in magnitude corresponds to a change in brightness by a factor of 5√100, or about 2.512. The brighter an object appears, the lower its magnitudevalue (i.e. inverse relation), with the brightest astronomical objects having negative apparent magnitudes: for example Sirius at −1.46.

Apparent Magnitude represents how bright an object looks in our sky. Absolute Magnitude represents how bright a star would look if it were 10 parsecs away from the Earth.