Mass determination for visual binaries

Abstract

We consider a sample of 432 visual binaries having orbital elements and belonging to the Main Sequence. We calculate their total masses using the orbital elements and the new Hipparcos parallaxes by applying Kepler's third law. For the same pairs the total masses are also found by applying the mass-luminosity relation. The source for the apparent magnitudes is the Washington Double Star Catalog. The Keplerian total masses show a large scatter. Nevertheless, in a large number of cases the agreement between total masses obtained in these two different ways is quite satisfactory indicating that i) for many visual binaries, as a rule not too distant and with high-quality orbital elements, the Keplerian total masses can be reliable and ii) a correlation between the relative parallax error and orbit grade exists.