Definition
The importance, quality or size of something. In ASTRONOMY, relative brightness of a CELESTIAL BODY. According to the accepted classification, a STAR of the 1st magnitude is a hundred times as bright as a STAR of the 6th magnitude (the faintest STAR that can be seen with the unaided eye) and the distribution of magnitudes is logarithmic in terms of brightness. Thus each reduction in magnitude means an increase of brightness of about 2 1/2.