bill@utastro.UUCP (09/20/83)
f the stars that one sees with the naked eye are intrinsically bright, and are not representative of the stellar population as a whole. In my elementary astronomy class I sometimes have the students plot (on the Temperature-Luminosity diagram) the positions of the 20 nearest stars, and then the positions of the 20 brightest (to the naked eye) stars. The distribution is entirely different. It's sort of like reading the obituary column in Newsweek. One seldom finds the average Joe or Jane there. Bill Jefferys 8-% Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (Snail) ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill (uucp) utastro!bill@utexas-11 (ARPA)