ANALYSES OF ARCHIVAL DATA FOR COOL DWARFS .1. THE SOLAR B-V PROBLEM RECONSIDERED

In a previous paper, Taylor has found that the solar value of (R - I)C is 0.337 +/- 0.0024 mag. This result can be converted to a value of (B - V). by combining it with blanketing corrections and a Hyades color-color relation. The latter are derived and discussed in this paper. The resulting value of (B - V). turns out to be 0.633 +/- 0.009 mag. Annoyingly, this datum differs from the mean of a number of previous results at better than 99.5% confidence. A survey of the problem reveals a wavelength boundary: Hbeta and Halpha yield the result quoted above, while spectroscopy at wavelengths shortward of Hbeta yields [(B - V).] = 0.665 +/- 0.003 mag. The Balmer-line derivations are largely blanketing insensitive, so for the present, it seems defensible to assume that the Balmer-line result is correct and that its short-wavelength counterparts are affected by some unknown property of the solar blanketing.