Early in the 1950's Strömgren (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) introduced medium to narrow-band interference filter photometry at the McDonald Observatory. He used six interference filters to obtain two parameters of astrophysical interest. These parameters he calledlandc, for line and continuum hydrogen absorption. The first measured empirically the absorption line strength of Hβby means of a filter of half width 35Å centered on Hβand compared to the mean of two filters situated in the continuum near Hβ. The second index measured empirically the Balmer discontinuity by means of a filter situated below the Balmer discontinuity and two above it. He showed that these two indices could accurately predict the spectral type and luminosity of both B stars and A and F stars. He later derived (6) an indexmfrom the same filters. This index was a measure of the relative line blanketing near 4100Å compared to two filters above 4500Å. These three indices confirmed earlier work by many people, including Lindblad and Becker. References to this earlier work and to the systems discussed today can be found in Strömgren's article inBasic Astronomical Data(7).
