, and
; it ranges for
from 1.14 magnitudes for a Lyrae to 0.42 magnitudes for
Cygni. The corresponding central intensities are 35 and 68 per cent of the intensity of the continuous background. The method used by Shapley employed a special set of apertures to obtain a graded series of images for a comparison of the central intensity with that of the adjacent background. Although it is not certain that all the very complex photographic and photometric difficulties involved were overcome by this method, its results are presumably entitled to greater weight than any other determinations of central intensity hitherto made. The intensity in the hydrogen absorption lines of Vega was ascertained to be about 25 per cent of that of the background.
SATURATION OF ABSORPTION LINES
The discussion outlined above presupposes that the substance producing the absorption line in the reversing layer is present in quantities great enough to absorb all the light of the appropriate wave-length, subsequently re-emitting it and giving rise to an absorption line with considerable central intensity. If the atom in question is present in quantities too small for complete absorption to take place, the central intensity of the line produced will of course be higher still. Such atoms are designated “unsaturated.” Saturation has been described by Russell[115] as follows:—“For the strong lines ... the absorption in the reversing layer is so great that a large increase in the number of absorbing atoms present alters the strength of the line very little. For the weak components ... absorption under ordinary conditions is incomplete, and the strengthening (in the spectra of sunspots) is noteworthy”—an increase in the amount of available material produces an increase in the strength of the line. The strong components are saturated, the weak ones are not. It should be noted that here there is an excess of atoms for the radiation. “Saturation” is used in another sense when the word is applied to the conditions at the center of a star,[116] where there is an excess of radiation for the atoms present.
EMISSION LINES