Astronomy › Section L · Analysing starlight and the stellar census › Topic L.5
A stellar census
To learn what a typical star is like, you have to count stars fairly. A careful census of our neighbourhood shows that most stars are small, faint red dwarfs, while the brilliant stars we see at night are rare, powerful and far away.
In this topic
- Counting the stars
- Units for a stellar census
- The neighbourhood within 10 parsecs
- Small stars rule
- Worked example: our invisible nearest neighbour
- Worked example: how far can the eye reach?
- Bright does not mean close
- Selection effects
- The census is still growing
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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