The influence of interstellar absorption on measured strengths of the Balmer discontinuity The definition of the Balmer-discontinuity strength from observationalspectrophotometric data is discussed in relation to detailed results onthe wavenumber dependence of the interstellar absorption. The break inthe interstellar absorption curve at a wavenumber of about 2.33permicrons is found to introduce systematic errors in many currentlydefined strengths of the Balmer discontinuity. The errors should beproportional to the amount of the color excess caused by interstellarabsorption. Using the interstellar absorption curves established byDivan (1954) and by Nandy (1964) theoretical relations are derivedbetween the amount of interstellar absorption and the correspondinginfluence on the Balmer-discontinuity strength. These linear relationsare confirmed through tests on larger sets of observational data. At thesame time the derived relations are useful as correction formulas.
Detection of errors in spectral classification by cluster analysis Cluster analysis methods are applied to the photometric catalogue ofuvby-beta measurements by Hauck and Lindemann (1973) and point out 249stars the spectral type of which should be reconsidered or thephotometric indices of which should be redetermined.