Regarding the apparent brightness scale used for stars, what does a lower magnitude number signify?

Answer

Brighter objects

The apparent brightness of celestial bodies is quantified using the magnitude scale, which operates inversely to common intuition regarding numbering systems. Specifically, lower magnitude numbers denote objects that are visually brighter, while higher magnitude numbers indicate dimmer objects. For example, the Sun has an extremely low magnitude of about -26.7, and a full moon is around -12.6. On a truly pristine, dark night, the faintest stars visible to the unaided human eye typically register around magnitude 6.0 or 6.5. This convention must be understood because light pollution's effect is described by how much it elevates the background brightness, effectively raising the minimum visible magnitude.

Regarding the apparent brightness scale used for stars, what does a lower magnitude number signify?

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USAnightstarVisibilityLight pollution