Absolute Magnitude and Distance
A new application of spectroscopic methods is to the determination of the total brightness of the stars as compared with the sun and their distance or “spectroscopic parallax” as it is called. This depends not on the positions but on the relative intensity or strength of the lines in the spectra of the stars and has only been developed in the last three or four years. The absolute magnitude and spectroscopic parallax of about 800 stars is now nearly completed and will soon be published while as a side line the radial velocities of 125 more stars have been determined.