In astronomy, a photometric system is a set of well-defined passbands (or optical filters), with a known sensitivity to incident radiation. The sensitivity usually depends on the optical system, detectors and filters used. For each photometric system a set of primary standard stars is provided.

A commonly adopted standardized photometric system is the Johnson-Morgan or UBV photometric system (1953). At present, there are more than 200 photometric systems.

Photometric systems are usually characterized according to the widths of their passbands:

• broadband (passbands wider than 30nm, of which the most widely used is Johnson-Morgan UBV system)

• intermediate band (passbands between 10 and 30nm wide)

• narrow band (passbands less than 10nm wide)

Photometric letters

Each letter designates a section of light of the electromagnetic spectrum; these cover well the consecutive major groups, near-ultraviolet (NUV), visible light (centered on the V band), near-infrared (NIR) and part of mid-infrared (MIR). The letters are not standards, but are recognized by common agreement among astronomers and astrophysicists.

The use of U,B,V,R,I bands dates from the 1950s, being single-letter abbreviations.

With the advent of infrared detectors in the next decade, the J to N bands were labelled following on from near-infrared's closest-to-red band, I.

Later the H band was inserted, then Z in the 1990s and finally Y, without changing earlier definitions. Hence, H is out of alphabetical order from its neighbours, while Z,Y are reversed from the alphabetical higher-wavelength sub-series which dominates current photometric bands.Note: colors are only approximate and based on wavelength to sRGB representation (when possible).

Combinations of these letters are frequently used; for example the combination JHK has been used more or less as a synonym of "near-infrared", and appears in the title of many papers.

Filters used

The filters currently being used by other telescopes or organizations.

Units of measurements:

• Å = Ångström

• nm = nanometre

• μm = micrometre

Note: colors are only approximate and based on wavelength to sRGB representation (when possible).

See also

• Photometry

• AB magnitude

References and footnotes

External links

• Johnson, H. L.; Morgan, W. W. (1953), Fundamental stellar photometry for standards of spectral type on the revised system of the Yerkes spectral atlas, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 117, pp.313–352 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1953ApJ...117..313J

• The Asiago Database on Photometric Systems

• Michael S. Bessell (2005), STANDARD PHOTOMETRIC SYSTEMS, Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics vol. 43, pp.293–336

• Infrared portrait of the nearby massive star-forming region IRAS 09002-4732, Apai, D.; Linz, H.; Henning, Th.; Stecklum, B., 2005