Converting Light curve to Luminosity So I'm currently working around a specific variable star, α Ori and I want to determine it's luminosity...I do only have the light curve (driven from V-optical photometric band - Johnson V from AAVSO)... Is it allowed to utilize it to compute for Luminosity L? The distance modulus doesn't seem to fit since it is for 'visual' magnitude (Using our eyes) so I guess it requires a different approach?
I tried to check in SDSS tho for the other photometric system...But since it avoids the galactic plane and α Ori is &quot;bright&quot; enough, I'm sure the detectors will be saturated so I opted it.
Since I'm new to this kind of stuff, I'm looking forward for your help/s, suggestions and others. Also, I may have missed out something so I apologize.
Best regards,
CGHA
To calculate a &quot;luminosity light curve&quot; from a time series of V-band photoetry, you need two things.

You need to know the distance. The distance to Betelgeuse is uncertain and that means the absolute value of the luminosity you get will also be shifted systematically up or down by whatever distance you adopt.

The V-band only contains a small fraction of the luminous flux from Betelgeuse (most is in the red and near infrared). To convert a V-band magnetude to a &quot;bolometric magnitude&quot; requires you to add a bolometric correction, which is dependent on the spectrum of the star. In principle, if the star is varying, in the V-band, that might be because the bolometric correction is varying (i.e. the luminosity is constant, but the distribution of flux with wavelength is changing). Or it could be that the bolometric correction is constant and the total luminosity is varying. You can't tell from the V-band data alone.


In summary - you can't do it.
The best you can do is assume a constant bolometric correction and turn your V-band light curve into a bolometric magnitude light curve and hence into a luminosity light curve. But then, since the absolute luminosity is uncertain because of the distance uncertainty, you may as well just work with the V-band flux.
To do any better requires nearly-simultaneous photometry in more bands, especially in the red and near-infrared.