Best OBAFGKM-OBAFGKMRNS-OBAFGKMLT Sayings

This page originally from this address.

What's this page about? Astronomers can classify stars according to what their spectra looks like - this has mainly to do with the temperature of the star. The various types of spectra were named with letters before people knew what was really going on with them. Once it was decided to put the stars in order of decreasing temperature, the letter designations were kept, but had to be rearranged from hottest to coolest temperature. Because the resulting order of spectral types ended up being OBAFGKM, there were various ways that the order could be remembered, mainly by using a little saying. One of the first ones was "Oh be a fine girl kiss me". There are several other spectral types that could be added to the sequence resulting in OBAFGKMRNS, and to remember that one could use the saying "Oh be a fine girl kiss me right now sweetie". Generally the RNS types are rather rare and are just K and M stars with peculiar spectra.

In the late 1990's two new spectral type were introduced. This results in the spectral sequence OBAFGKMLT.

What follows are the various sayings that my students have come up with to help remember the various sequences. There is always one grand prize winner per class and several runner ups.

NOTE: If you are easily insulted by things like, South Park, or naughty words, don't go any further.  Some of the items have been edited, but these sayings are still PG-13.

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