It's distance from Earth and the star's actual brightness
Three things, really. An astronomer needs to determine the apparent brightness of a star or other object, and needs to know its distance. He would also need to have an estimate about extinction - that is, how much of the light is absorbed on its way.
Two stars may look, for us, like they have about the same brightness, but it may be that one is a hundred times farther away... and 10,000 times brighter. The two things cancel out in this example. The "absolute brightness" tells us how bright a star or other object REALLY is. It is defined as how bright the object looks at a standard distance.
They use trigonometry to measure the parallax error in the nearby star's position based on a large triangle, the base of which is formed by two times the distance of the Earth to the Sun. Simply stated, they plot the star's position on one day, and again six months later, when the Earth is 186,000 miles away from its original position. They use the far distant stars as a calibration standard, and use the Pythagorean theorem to figure out the rest.
astronomers do what they do because they want to find bigger and better things that have yet to be discovered.
Double stars, or a Super Nova, or a comet that is close to Earth the Moon and of course Venus. The morning, evening "Star". Actually you have to distinguish between apparent brightness (as seen from Earth) and absolute brightness (as seen from a standard distance). In apparent brightness, Venus, Jupiter and Mars are brighter than any star - but their real brightness is much less. In absolute terms, some things that are brighter than single stars are groups of stars (double stars, star clusters, galaxies, galaxy clusters), exploding stars (novae, supernovae, hypernovae); and quasars.
Since the beginning of astronomy. Astronomers are ALWAYS looking for new things.
The flux formula in astronomy is significant because it helps astronomers measure the brightness of celestial objects. Flux is the amount of energy received per unit area per unit time from a celestial object. By using the flux formula, astronomers can calculate the amount of light or radiation emitted by a celestial object and compare its brightness to other objects in the sky. This measurement is crucial for understanding the properties and behavior of celestial objects, such as stars, galaxies, and other astronomical phenomena.
Astronomers. They study all things about space.
They use binoculars, various sky maps and charts or planispheres. They use special equipment for doing things like measuring the brightness or stars, or examining their colours. They use computers in many ways. They use satellites and other communications technology. All of these and many other things are used by astronomers.
They are for seeing, but they can only see the brightness of things.
Temperature, and brightness.
So the earlier astronomers can locate things in the sky.. They used the constellations to help them point out certain things