Milky Way Luminosity

Bob Elliott Feb 24, 2002

> Does anyone know the luminosity of the Milky Way in units of
>the sun? I could then have Guide say, "This galaxy is X times
>brighter than the sun and Y times brighter than the Milky Way."
>But I'm not having much luck in digging out this datum.
>
>-- Bill

My old Abell (ca1996) gives the absolute magnitude of the Milky Galaxy as
-20.6 the same as the Andromeda galaxy. If we use the absolute magnitude
of the sun as +5.8 then the difference is 26.4 magnitudes or 3.87x10**10
times that of the sun.

I'm sure that some current astronomers can give you a much better answer.

Bob Elliott