Sects. 12, 13. 89 sequence and that subgiant and fainter stars in
globular clusters have ultraviolet excesses. When dealing with stars
whose physical properties are imperfectly under- stood, such as in
globular cluster stars, we cannot rely too heavily on the empiri- cal
calibration by the kinds of stars used to define Fig. 5, to determine
their true, unreddened U-B, B-V curve. But if by a combination of
arguments, principally the reddening in the region of the stars we do
known about, we can assign a fairly probable unreddened U-B, B-V curve
to a group of stars about which we know little, the argument may be
turned around. In this case some information may be gained about the
energy envelope of the stars by examining the differences between the
normal two-color index curves for the unknown group of stars compared to
the known. In general there seem to be two possible causes for different
stars defining different normal sequences in the U-B, B-V plane. One,
the relative energy distribution in the continuum in the U, B and V
photometry bands are different. An example of this is the effect of the
Balmer depression in supergiants. This, of course, requires deviation
from black body radiation curves for one or both groups of stars. This
cause seems to be the dominant effect for very blue, hot stars where the
depression of the continuum by absorption lines is at a minimum.